The Beloved Catgirl Archer
by Pretty Lazy
Summary: He didn't think he would find something akin to a cult ritual late one night, but after a flashing light, a certain girl had shown up before him. A girl with cat ears and a bow in her hand. A girl that he fell in love with at first sight. And so, the daily life of Kurogane Yoshida, a boy who didn't even know what a Holy Grail was, will change for the sake of being by her side.
1. Chapter 1 : That Certain Fateful Day

**Chapter 1 / That Certain Fateful Day**

* * *

The radio speaker system had finally broken.

With his head ducking underneath the counter, his father kept tapping against the machine, trying to return life into the old hardware. Obviously, it hadn't been working. Not even a loose prayer could revive it from the dead, but Kurogane knew it was only a matter of time until it had to be replaced. It was already a miracle that this old piece of junk was able to function inside of the cafe for so long.

"Dad, I'm telling you, it's already gone!" Kurogane declared, crossing his arms. He was ready for this little operation to go badly. "We should get a new one over the weekend like I've been saying this entire time."

"Nonsense!" his father waved his hand dismissively. "It simply needs another fine tuning! I managed to fix it all the other times, so it won't be any different this time!"

It wasn't as if they were rolling in debt for him to be acting this way.

The cafe that his family owned had been quite a successful business, despite being on the outskirts of the downtown area, so they had plenty of money to throw around. Not that it was their common practice to do so, but whatever Kurogane thought it was necessary, his father would always think adversely. It was simply ingrained in his father's nature to save money whenever he could.

As his father opened up the backside where all the electrical wires were, much to his son's prior warning. Taking a screwdriver, though Kurogane was highly doubting that this was a safe method, he began sticking it into the radio, trying to push the contents around in order to get it to work again.

Instead, an electrical burst blasted outwards and started frying the whole thing. Luckily, his father didn't get hurt, backing off the moment he heard the sparking, but if it hadn't been broken before, Kurogane could say for certain that it was now.

With a wryly chuckle, his father looked over to his son who had been wholefully unimpressed by his father's shenanigans. "So, Kurogane. About that new radio."

Kurogane simply had a single response and sighed. "I already looked into it earlier today and there was a sale for system radios downtown. It's a pretty good model, especially for its new price, and it'll be going on until next Monday." He brought up his phone and showed his father the advertisement, causing him to raise his eyebrows.

"Oh? Why didn't you say sooner?"

"Yeah, I did," he said, pocketing his phone. "Multiple times even."

"Did you now?"

"I guess you were too busy trying to break the machine even further to listen to what I was saying."

"Ha ha ha! So I was!"

His father stood up from behind the front counter and took a note on his pocket agenda to remind himself to reserve some room to buy the new system and have it installed quickly. Part of what made the cafe so comfortable and homely to customers was the ambience music that would play as they enjoyed their meals or drinks while they hung out with friends and family.

They were simply lucky that today had been one of the slower days. There were empty tables at the front where it was much more popular normally while more sitting sections were offered further down by those who didn't want to be right by the front windows.

Kurogane noticed that one of the customers had been preparing to leave and gestured for the bill. He walked around the black counter with a receipt and mint candy, free of charge, as his father went back to the kitchen. There was still some prep left to do for some of the meals available later tonight.

"How did you like the pie, Miss?"

"It was incredible. I couldn't stop eating it once I started," she praised, smiling with a hand on her cheek. "I'll certainly have to bring my friends here when I have the time."

"Glad to hear that!" He placed them down in front of her while taking the plates and glass off for the kitchen. "Hopefully, we'll be seeing you soon! Bring lots of people, as much as you want. We still got an entire other room if you need reservations."

"Thanks, that's good to know," she nodded.

Walking over to the kitchen, Kurogane had only passed the counter when the chimes at the front of the cafe had rang, signaling a new customer. Usually, there wouldn't be any specific interaction, but as he glanced over, he saw that a man with a black suit and dark glasses had been standing there. It was as if he thought there was someone present to guide him to his seat like some sort of fancy restaurant.

Kurogane took a second to make sure that the black-suited had truly been expecting such a thing before speaking up. He then noticed the unusual steelbacked briefcase being firmly gripped with a black glove.

"Excuse me, Mister? You can take any seat you want here. You don't need to wait for anybody."

"_Is that right_?" he asked, scanning the room. If Kurogane didn't know any better, he would have thought that he was trying to see if there were any dangerous enemies in this simple cafe. After a bit, the man pointed to one of the seats along the counter. "I'll take that one."

"O-Okay? Please make yourself at home."

He took one of the menus on the backside and placed it where the man had wanted to sit before heading on en route to the kitchen. It took another moment for the mysterious man to approach his chair, swinging his legs in while silently placing the briefcase on the counter space right beside him. It was considered rather rude to cover up another potential seat, but given the nagging curiosity at the back of his head, it was clear that it hadn't been his highest concern.

He rushed into the kitchen and placed the dishes next to the sink while the sound of chopping could be heard. His father had already flipped his switch onto his work while the hired kitchen assistant, a close family friend of theirs, came to the new task. He wore a similar white apron and uniform to his father and was much better at making desserts than them.

However, he paused once he came closer.

"Hey, Kurogane," the older man called out. "What's up? What happened? You look kinda out of it."

"H-Huh…? W-What…?" Kurogane shook his head and cleared up his mind. "S-Sorry, Mister Yamada. I… I wasn't listening. Did you ask me something?"

"Yeah, I did ask you something. You kept looking back into the main diner area when you entered the kitchen."

Unintentionally, he did the exact thing that Mister Yamada said. "O-Oh, was I? I didn't even realize."

"Did your father do something to the radio system? If I come out there to see the entire ceiling on fire, there might be problems that I could understand!" he jested, sporting a hearty laughter. He crossed his arms and pushed out his rather buff chest as if he was proud of what he said. "Anyways, what seems to be the actual problem here?"

"W-Well, it's nothing too major." Kurogane was stuttering at his thoughts, trying to put his finger on what he found odd about the black-suited man. Nothing he did was worth mentioning since he understood that some people weren't accustomed to cafes like theirs. "I only have an eye on someone who just came in."

"Ah, is it a lady!?"

The chopping in the background stopped as his father almost instantaneously rushed to Kurogane's side.

"Ahaha! So my son has finally fallen in love!" His shoulders were violently grabbed out of happiness. "Let me tell you something, Kurogane, my boy! Your mother and I met in a similar situation. She was the customer and I was someone working in the kitchen, but when I laid my eyes on her, I knew that she was the one! But it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows! It was a rocky road that I had to persevere through!"

"Uh, dad? That's not was I—"

"Fear not, my son! I shall guide you through , so that you can have your newfound love blossom into fruit! Preferably fruit that exists in the form of grandchildren!" A huge smile had stuck on his father;s face like it was a sticker. "Your mother would be excited to hear such a thing! Let me be the first one to tell—!"

"Dad, it's not a girl!"

His father froze and Kurogane could see each stage of grief cycling through his father's eyes, but a single slow slap had managed to break out and tap his shoulder.

"Don't worry. I'll still accept you even if you're—"

"No! We've been over this already!" Kurogane spat. "I'm not looking for any type of romance here! I'm just not interested in dating yet! I'm still in high school, so I have plenty of time to see what life has in store for me!"

"You would think that with your age, you would try and seek these types of relationships," Mister Yamada said. "I remember when I was your age that many of my friends, me included, had already been on dates and such."

"Then is then and now is now! And I'm different from how people are from the past!"

"Nonsense! You simply haven't found that one person that you would fall head over heels for!" his father exclaimed. "Trust me when I say that love makes you do incredible and sometimes crazy things, but you need to get that feeling in your heart first!"

"I'm sure you're right and all! I hear you loud and clear, dad!"

Kurogane tried to split the conservation then and there. It wasn't as if he was getting annoyed, but hearing the 'love' topic from his father was starting to get real old. It was almost a bi-daily thing to talk about.

"Listen, I'm still working here and there's a customer out there that probably wants their order to be taken right about now!"

"Yeah, we should properly get back to tonight's prep and leave your son alone," Mister Yamada nodded. He had his burst of fun, throwing the fetching stick at the teenager, but there was still a business to run. "We're almost done here and after that, you can go talk to your son about romance."

"Please don't give him any ideas, Mister Yamada," Kurogane groaned as he left the kitchen to the grown-ups. He could still hear the light snickering from the assistant.

When he returned, the receipt that the female customer was given had been replaced by some money, a little more than what she was supposed to pay. He supposed that she had somewhere to be and couldn't simply wait for the sole waiter to come out and accept the money, asking if she wanted change. He started collecting it up while using a rag to wipe down the table.

Out of the corner of his eye, the black-suited man had still been looking at the menu as if he was needing to make an important life decision. He rubbed his sleek and structured chin as he pondered with a subtle hum to add.

"Are you having trouble choosing what to buy from our menu, Mister?"

Without breaking sight of the text and pictures, the mysterious man nodded. "Indeed. I'm having concerns on whether or not I would properly enjoy these meals or not. The descriptions have the right amount of writing to draw my curiosity, but I don't have enough information to make my worthwhile decision. And it's not as if I could buy all of these, as much as I would like to."

(_That's incredibly wordy for what could have been a simple, "I need recommendations"._)

Walking over to behind the counter, he tossed the rag off to the side and put the bag in the register while he continually addressed the man.

"What are your preferences? Looking for something sweet? Something spicy? Refreshing? What flavours do you enjoy?"

"Anything would do. I'm not particularly picky."

(_Then why are you having such a tough time deciding!?_)

"Though, I am looking for a short meal. Perhaps a dessert of some kind."

"Oh, if that's the case, you can't leave this place without trying our cafe special menu item. We're rather well known for that dessert and I haven't heard anybody complain about how it tastes."

The man glared at the teenager. "Was that a _threat_?"

"_Heh_? _Come again_?" Kurogane tilted his head at the sudden atmosphere of hostility, trying to trace back his previous sentence. "Was _what _a threat?"

"Never mind." The man closed the menu book and handed it over to his waiter. "Go bring me whatever this special menu item is. I'll pay what the amount is."

"S-Sure thing…"

He carried the menu off to the side, rather perplexed at the interaction, but he knew there was still a job to do. At the end of the day, regardless of who they are, they were still a paying customer as long as they didn't get vicious or violent around the staff or the other customers. Despite feeling like he would stand up and start attacking the poor teenager, there was no real basis for that.

"Hey, Mister Yamada!" Kurogane dipped his head in while writing down the order at the same time. "We got an... order (_yeah, let's call it that_) for Golden Apple pie! Is the next batch finished yet?"

"There's no more in the front?" he shouted back.

"The last person who ordered the last piece just left a few minutes ago!"

"For a slow day, people sure really buy up these pies like they're limited in availability, but they really do go fast for how long it takes to make a single set of batches." Letting go of the peeler and the vegetables, Mister Yamada took a few steps to see the pie in the oven. "It should be a few more minutes until the next set. Think you can stall him until then?"

Kurogane instinctively thought that was a bad idea as he ripped off the written order and placed it off to the side where the other past orders had been, right next to the door.

"I'll… definitely try."

He briskly moved back into the diner area and saw the mysterious man keeping a close eye on the briefcase like how lions looked after their cubs. He was incredibly silent the entire time and although the very few remaining customers hadn't the slightest problem with him, the man was somehow becoming increasingly uncomfortable to be around.

Kurogane went off and tended to the remaining customers, asking them if they needed anything else and helping them close the transaction for their meals, but the entire time, the man simply kept watch as a hawk on their target.

After one of the customers left, he turned back to the mysterious man.

"It'll take a few moments for the dessert to finish baking."

"That is acceptable."

He had not the slightest idea on how to follow up on that. Usually, he was good with dealing with the aloof, but this man had been on a different level.

"While we wait, I have a question for you, young man."

"Y-Yes?" Kurogane stiffened when he was being addressed. "What do you need to be answered?"

Out of the black suit, the man pulled out a piece of paper. Unwrapping it revealed scribbles of some sort, but when Kurogane was properly shown its surface directly, he recognized it as an address with a street name that was somewhat close by to their cafe.

"This location. Do you know of it?" he firmly asked. "I need to arrive there in due time, but I had some difficulty in tracking its whereabouts."

"Yeah, I do." The man pulled out a pen and prepared to write out the instructions. "You continue down the street until you hit one of the bridges over the river. You can go straight ahead on the path and turn right once you arrive on the second intersection. You follow that path and you'll be able to find the street you need."

However, Kurogane stayed silent about the specific numbered house that was on the paper. He had a guess what it might have been, but it was such a long time ago that he paid attention to the house numbers there that it was a mere flicker.

The man nodded and stuffed the pen and paper back into his pocket. "I appreciate the help."

"Happy to help out."

He guessed that enough time passed by and he left to the kitchen to get a piece of the pie. The tray had already been taken out for him, so he was left with cutting the pieces and drafting it to the plate. He added in the assorted fruits on top alongside the special whipped cream, exclusive to this cafe, platting it to look too good to eat.

With the Golden Apple Pie being brought out, he was prepared to hand it to the man with a small speech and everything about how great this was, but he was rather surprised to see that the man had completely disappeared.

He thought he heard the chimes when he was in the middle of preparations, but he simply thought it was another customer. It turned out that the black-suited man had ran away for some reason.

Looking confused, he placed the dessert onto the counter and checked out where he sat and noticed a shining red glint of light along the ground. He bent over to pick it up.

"A gemstone? Was this his?" He brought it up to one of the ceiling lights and looked through the colouration. "It really looks expensive."

If it truly had value, the mysterious man would return for it and at that point, they could berate him for literally ordering, but not actually staying for the food. Though, that wouldn't have done much except a slap on the wrist and he wasn't rude enough to hold the gem hostage because of the man's manners.

He slipped it into his pocket and kept watch on the door, waiting for the man to return.

/

"He didn't return? Well, if that isn't some suspicious activity, I wouldn't know what would be."

Kurogane's friends had been sitting at the counter, enjoying their milkshakes on the house. Rather, it was more on his own wallet, but considering he was the one to make them, his loss wasn't correctly advertised on the menu. It was his little gesture to keep having them swing on over while he was still working at his father's cafe, not that it was needed.

His friend, Akio, had his eyes burning a hole at the gemstone that Kurogane placed between them for the pair to see for themselves. Riku, on the other hand, looked rather disinterested in the whole ordeal.

"Looks like the man didn't get the memo on how a dine-and-dash works," Riku said. "There are idiots in the world like that and I wouldn't be surprised if he was one of them."

"But he had a black suit on and everything!" Akio exclaimed. "That basically says that he's someone of importance and important aren't dumb! I… _I think_."

"Still, I think he just didn't realize it's missing yet or else he would have returned sooner. I'm not a rock person, but even I can tell that it's definitely not plastic or replicated material."

"You think so, Riku?" Kurogane asked.

"A guess in the end, but I could bet money on it."

"Maybe we'll return him the gemstone when you get off work. You said that your evening shift was being taken care of already?" Akio asked, sipping down his milkshake.

"Yeah, there's a reservation later tonight for someone's birthday and considering how I was covering the entire front diner morning to afternoon, my dad thought it would be better if I took the evening off."

"Then we can go return the gemstone to him then."

"Or not," Riku interrupted. "With what he pulled at the cafe, I rather think that this is his instant karma for ordering, then leaving. The restaurant industry doesn't take too kindly to people like them."

"That's a pretty expensive price to pay, especially when Kurogane ate the pie instead!" Akio complained, pumping his hands. "If you don't want to return it, then you don't have to come! I'm sure that Haruka would help us out when she arrives!"

"Speaking of which, she hasn't texted you back yet?"

Kurogane glanced at his phone and saw no new notifications.

He wondered where their other friend had gone. She said that she would be arriving shortly to hang out, but the so-called 'shortly' had turned into an extended thirty minutes. Unexpected problems can occur, but she was often good at updating them on her situation.

This was probably the first time they were left in the dark.

"Anyways, we can think about that later. He asked you for directions to a place, right?" Akio brought up. "Maybe he's staying there for the night, so there's a good chance we'll be able to find him there."

"Actually, there's a slight problem with that."

Kurogane grabbed the ruby gemstone from the table for safekeeping for now as his friends looked at him, beckoning him to go on.

"If it's where I think it's located, then that man just asked for directions to that Midnight Manor."

"Heh!? _Heh_!?"

"W-What!? Seriously!?"

His friends widened their eyes, even Riku who didn't look invested in the story. The moment that the specific manor was mentioned, their ears flared up and their attention was taken in wholefully.

The Midnight Manor was something of an urban legend around this part of the city. Alongside a specific street, there had been a dense forest. It was always difficult to see through anything past the trees and bushes, but parents of young children would always tell them to never enter the area or else they might get lost.

That being said, there was supposingly a manor that was hidden away inside of the forest. Despite the limited area that could easily be checked over, a manor was never officially found, but what had been odd was that the house numbers would simply skip over as if there was one there.

That's where the theory had originated and some people who ventured through the thicket claimed to have seen it whereas others did not. Unfortunately, there hadn't been many sightings as of the last few years from what they heard, which made the urban legend die down.

However, Kurogane, Akio, and Riku were among the ones that have encountered the manor, but they had only seen it once in their childhood. It was only through vague flashes of memory though, making them doubt if they even saw it in the first place.

They all stayed silent, unsure how to even follow up on that.

The chimes of the cafe had rang, luckily to draw their attention away from the awkward atmosphere.

"Ya'ello!" A ratherful peppy salutations came from the beautiful silver blonde girl. Her trendy outfit suggested that she had just finished hanging out with some of the more popular people at their school as they knew she wouldn't have dressed up this much for them. "Hope everyone didn't wait long!"

"We didn't exactly miss you," Riku remarked with some snark. "Just wondering if you got hit by a car on your way over here."

"That's a bit rude!" she pouted as she took the counter seat right to him and pounded his arm with all her might. He instinctively and understandably latched onto the pain.

"O-Ouch!"

"You shouldn't joke about a lady like me dying that easily! I'm much tougher than I look!"

"F-Fine! Lesson learned! G-Geez…!"

She dug herself into the seat comfortable before leaning onto the counter.

"Oh and Kuro, sweetie! Can you get me a milkshake too?"

"Only if you never call me by 'sweetie' ever again."

Kurogane went to work and was able to quickly whip up the drink for Haruka. There were only a few more people left in the cafe and Kurogane could definitely multi-task, keeping an eye on them in case they needed something extra or wanted to pay. He finished and slid the glass over to where Haruka was and she happily sipped on the straw.

"Ah, something refreshing like this is totally worth everything that happened so far…!"

"Huh?" Akio dipped his head inwards. "Did something happen that caused your delay?"

"Just a bad headache of parents and dragging me into their problems," she shrugged. "Sorry that I wasn't able to contact you, but it slipped my mind when all I was thinking about was trying to escape their talks."

"Ah, makes sense," Riku said, still easing his injury. "You always said your parents were always uptight about the most random things."

"Yep, and I'd wish they would just let loose for a bit. Though I can see where they're coming from, that doesn't excuse pulling me into their mess!" Haruka made one very tired sigh before trying to cheer herself back up with two light slaps against her own face. "Enough of that already! What were you all talking about before I came in?"

"About a mysterious black-suited man that showed up at the cafe and asked directions to the mysterious manner in the forest," Kurogane answered. "Quite a mysterious thing, right? Even dropped a mysterious gemstone in the process."

He pulled out the gemstone once more and Haruka had immediately stiffened her back. The other boys had taken notice of her odd reaction and glanced at each other with questions popping up in their heads until Haruka had bursted out her surprise.

"That's a real one! The real deal!"

Kurogane gasped. If anyone knew anything about jewelry out of the group, it was probably the fashion-stridened girl here and if she said that this was real, the chances became significantly higher that this had a lot of value.

"Let me see that!"

As Haruka hastily grabbed forwards, Kurogane had stepped back, causing her to miss her target.

"Hey, calm down! We don't want to drop it if it's a really expensive ruby here!"

"Ruby?" It was as if her consciousness returned to the helm of her head and she settled back down. "A-Ah, right! I-It's a ruby! Definitely nothing else!"

The friends had frowned, rather skeptical at what she was going on about, until she suddenly swung herself off the seat and held onto her purse.

"Well, uhm! I have to leave!"

"What!? You just got here!"

Without another word, Haruka ran out of the cafe, paired with the clattering chimes and all, keeping the boys perplexed at what just happened. If they thought they were previously in the dark with the lack of texts, they were probably dropped down into an unlit basement at this point.

"So anyone want to give a guess on what just happened?" Riku asked.

"She left her drink, basically untouched," Kurogane groaned. "That's what."

Akio could have only shaken his head, but he went off and followed the path that they were leading to before they were interrupted by their friend's sudden storm.

"You know, if the Midnight Manor is the only lead we have on the black-suited man, then you two know what we should do, right? Not for old time's sake, but just to help someone out."

Riku crossed his arms.

"No way. I'm not returning back there again. Honestly, it's just a huge waste of time and like I said before, you're better off just keeping the damn—"

/

"I don't even understand how you two talked me into this."

"We've been friends since we were kids. Both of us know that you show a cold and strong front, but you're really easy once we break through."

"Shut up, Kuro. Let's get this over with quickly."

The three boys had been standing in front of the dense forest with night starting to fall. One of the rumors stated that the Midnight Manor would only show up around midnight (thus the name), but they wanna to wander around during that time, so if there truly was a house in these parts, evening would already suffice.

Normally, if this was in the school year, his father would be angry that he was leaving the house at that time, but considering it was the summer break, it was understandable if him and his friends wanted to head out for an lunar adventure. He only asked that they returned his son by midnight.

Kurogane was prepared and pulled out some flashlights from the cafe's storage room, providing one to each of his friends. With nothing else left to say, the group started moving down the thick greenery.

There was no simple path for them to take. Everything made it difficult to proceed even a single step, but from what it looked like, some of the branches looked like they were recently broken off from somebody moving through the forest. Kurogane guessed that they were on the right track and the others had deduced the same thing.

"Watch your steps, guys," Kurogane advised. "Some of the plants here can leave bruises."

"Yeah, I remember," Akio said. "I got one as a kid and couldn't stop crying because it hurted alot."

"Navigating through this forest seemed way, way easier as a kid though," Riku added on. "Smaller bodies definitely helped, but if it was fragile skin, I guess that's the flaw of the strategy right there."

It felt like only a few minutes had passed, but the sky above had looked much darker than they expected. It might have been the trees that blocked the evening glow, but their wariness started to grow. The branches seemed like they were moving through the shadows and their minds started playing tricks on them, despite having three sources of strong lights with them.

Riku started scoffing as they started slowing down.

"Okay, _maybe_ we should turn back. This was a stupid idea anyways, you two. I already said if the man really wanted the gemstone back, he would come back to the cafe and suffer the shame!"

"We're already in this deep!" Akio exclaimed.

"You just wanted an excuse to bring us over to the Midnight Manor again!"

"Yeah, and…!?"

"You could at least deny it!"

Kurogane stopped suddenly, hearing the sound of a snapping twig.

"Wait, was that you two? Did any of you step on something?"

Both Akio and Riku looked at each other before pointing their lights down at their feet, seeing that they haven't stepped on anything yet. They both shook their heads as sweat started to drip from Kurogane's head as a response. He took a subtle gulp.

"Maybe, just _maybe_, Riku has a point this time around."

"Oh, come on! Don't be like that, Kuro!" Akio complained, stomping his foot. "If you weren't curious about the Midnight Manor itself, you wouldn't have mentioned this place at all!"

"That's true, but I'm starting to get second thoughts now." Kurogane sweeped his surroundings with the flashlight's beam, seeing nothing worth mentioning aloud, but he couldn't stop the weird sensation on his spine. "I feel like someone is _watching_ us as we walk further in."

"I remember vaguely that you said the same thing when we were kids," Riku said. "Though, we did make it out alive without much issues."

"Hey, we saw the manor, right?"

Riku and Kurogane glanced over towards Akio's odd question confirmation.

"Yeah? Why are you asking?"

"Is it odd that I remember approaching the building, but I can't remember what happened afterwards?"

"It's been about a decade or so," Riku answered. "No, that's not weird. I can hardly remember the interior of the manor myself. Just random things that happened while we were looking for it, oddly enough."

"Wait, we walked in?" Kurogane asked.

Riku frowned as he scrunched his eyebrows.

"... Huh? _Did we_?"

The group stayed silent, rather spooked at Riku's sudden revelation. It wasn't as if Riku would have intentionally said that to scare them from advancing. It simply wasn't in their friend's nature to do so, but they did begin to see that it was weird that they could remember stuff that happened on the journey, but not about the prize that they were supposedly looking for.

"_Please_ don't gaslight us like that," Kurogane frowned.

Riku scratched his head. "Hey, I'm gaslighting myself here."

"So wait, are we continuing or not?" Akio flashed his light over to the two friends. "Because I hoped Riku would remember the path we took to get here if we're leaving."

"Didn't we just head straight? It's an easy way back, it's not rocket science."

"Huh?" Kurogane tilted his head. "I was sure we took a few turns here and there."

Riku immediately swung his light into Kurogane's eyes. "Alright, now _you're_ the one gaslighting me!"

"I could have sworn we were turning!"

"You know what?" Akio shrugged, comparatively much calmer than the other two. "We got each other's back. As long as we head back in one direction and stay together, we're bound to escape the forest successfully. Though, we made it this far." Akio raised his eyebrows reflexively. "Why don't we just finish up what we started? Don't tell me you're _scared_, Riku."

"Scared!? Who the hell is scared!?"

(_Oh, there's the bait and he took it easier than I thought._)

"I'm just saying it could get dangerous! But if you keep insisting on progressing, then be my guest! We'll know who to blame if things turn sour!"

Akio happily nodded. "Don't worry. I have enough confidence to take the blame ten times over!"

He brought himself over to the lead in Kurogane's place and started to march down the forest with stride in his footsteps. Kurogane looked over to Riku with a subtle smirk as the baited friend immediately realized what happened and hung his head in shame.

"Not a word, Kuro."

"Understandable."

They followed Akio in his tracks with Riku heading up closer to the leader than Kurogane as they patrolled through the rest of the evening. Never once did they find anything that resembled a house, but if Kurogane had to say something, he thought that they went through the same places already. It was like they were going in circles in the forest, but his friends kept moving on, acting as if they kept on going straight.

He knew he wasn't imagining it, but every time he brought it up, they would always deny that. Akio was absolutely certain that he wasn't taking any major turns or anything like the sort and Riku had firmly confirmed that. It sounded like Akio was drained of his excitement and was ready to throw in the towel.

Flashing his light to the distance one last time, he then noticed something flashing out of the corner of his eye from the direction where his friends were leading. He didn't turn his light towards it, but his attention had been certainly drawn in its place.

He felt his heart pounding slightly more than usual, thinking that he had stumbled upon something.

"Hey. Akio? Riku? I found some light through there. It looks like some type of… pattern?" He tilted his head, trying to make out what the trees had been disrupting from full view. "I need some second and third perspectives on that, but it's definitely something worth checking—"

He moved his light back to his friends, only to find that they had disappeared.

"—_out_."

Silence filled his head while that pounding heart only increased its intensity.

Kurogane flicked his sight back and forth, trying to see where his friends ran off to, but there was absolutely no sign of them. Even if they tried to shuffle away, he would have at least heard some rustling from the bushes.

"Hey! Akio! Riku! Where are you guys!?"

He frantically moved around, but he never left the general area that he started from.

"This isn't funny, you two! This is some mean-spirited prank you cooked up here!"

Despite saying that, he knew that Riku and Akio weren't the type to pull something like this on him, but it was much more reassuring to tell himself the lie rather than acknowledging that they truly did disappear on him. Gritting his teeth, there was only one thing left to do.

"Damn it. I _did_ say it was something worth checking out…"

If he turned back here, he might not see this mysterious sight again.

Kurogane took a deep breath to calm himself and started travelling towards the light, angling the flashlight at the ground to walk carefully. Pushing some of the branches and bushes out of the way to get through safely, he managed to break out of the dense forest and was able to arrive at an unfamiliar clearing.

It certainly wasn't a house, as he had hoped.

Instead, it was some type of magic circle ripped out of a fantasy world, marked with runes and some type of unreadable writing. It was so elaborate in its pattern that Kurogane found it difficult to believe that something as random as this was being made without supervision.

He looked around, but it wasn't as if he needed the flashlight anymore. He turned it off and latched it to his belt. The light that was being emitted by the circle had been unnaturally forming a bright area. He was confused how none of them were able to see this glowing environment around, but regardless, he couldn't see anyone else.

It was like this… _thing_ was abandoned for whatever reason.

More importantly, there was a familiar item that Kurogane remembered from this afternoon. In the middle of the magic circle, the briefcase that the mysterious man carried with him had been opened up within the center of the area of its effect, but inside revealed a curious item.

It was merely the pelt of an animal.

Kurogane questioned why such an item was being protected by a strong briefcase in the first place. It didn't look like there was anything else paired with it or that it was special in any way, shape, or form.

However, it looked rather old.

"Hello? Is anyone here?" Deciding to speak up, he wondered if the person was hiding somewhere. "Sorry for interrupting whatever cult ritual you're doing here, but you left an expensive gemstone back at the cafe. I'm the waiter that took your order?"

There wasn't any response, but he continued.

"We aren't exactly angry that you ordered then left, but we would kindly ask for you to not do it again. It's really disrespectful for the business and I hope I don't have to explain why that is. If you agree, then I can just leave the gemstone here for you."

He took out the gemstone in question, but as he did, he noticed that it was starting to glow in the same vein as the magic circle. It felt like energy was pulsating from it and being pulled into the terrain.

Suddenly, he found himself unintentionally walking closer to the circle while staring at the gemstone, allured by its unusual features. He didn't want to stand right inside of something so sketchy, but he luckily managed to get a hold of himself right before he crossed the perimeter.

"What the… heck…?"

Holding it between his hands, he thought it was going to shatter into a million pieces, but it kept staying on the border of breaking. Figuring it had to do something about the proximity of the circle, he started backing up, but that's when he saw a pair of legs off to the side.

They were draped in black dress pants, just like the ones the mysterious man had been wearing.

Happy he found his target, he scurry over while making sure that the gemstone remained in one piece.

"There you are! I didn't think you were lying down around here, but I'm not anyone dangerous. I just wanted to return—"

Kurogane couldn't finish his thought.

How could he?

When someone comes across a dead body with their mouth foaming out blood and their eyes rolled back, one would usually stop to try and process what it was that they stumbled upon. Kurogane was no one different to be exempt from the rule, especially when he saw the man being alive and well just hours prior this moment.

"W-What… the…?"

He started shaking.

His breaths became erratic and his thoughts were in a state of panic.

His heart was pounding, more than he could ever imagine.

That man had been dead before his eyes and truth be told, this was his first time seeing a dead person in such a state. He didn't know what to do and it was as if time had frozen still, despite his body slowly moving back.

He didn't want to deal with this.

He wanted to see where his curiosity would take him, but if he knew that at the end of the rainbow was _this_, he wouldn't have talked about the mysterious man to his friends in the first place. In a way, he really wanted to have them investigate this place once more, but he really started to regret it, much more than before.

The gemstone was held tightly in one hand, refusing to let it go out of his fear.

His foot, on the other hand, had been slowly moving backwards in his state of horror.

"_He's dead… He's actually dead…_"

His head started spinning and Kurogane really wanted to throw up, covering his mouth to stop the reflex.

"_W-Why…? What's going on here…!?_"

He didn't understand it. There was nothing about this situation that made any type of sense!

Through his instinctive actions, he never noticed that he started walking over the magic circle and he didn't have the senses to feel that the gemstone in his hand was beginning to burn hotter and glow even brighter as he reached the center.

When his foot collided with the briefcase, he leapt up in surprise, screaming out. His body restored all of his sensations, especially his left hand which immediately dropped the gemstone down to the ground from the fiery sensation.

Kurogane could have done nothing except to watch it crash, shattering into the millions of pieces that he dreaded.

However, he didn't realize that the pieces didn't exactly act like it was a mineral. Dropping it at this height probably wouldn't have shattered it that badly to begin with, but he saw that the circle itself was _absorbing _the pieces like it was some type of fuel.

In a snap of a finger, Kurogane's vision had been devoured by a blinding white light and his ears were covered by the sound of thunderbolts.

He covered his eyes and felt a strong wind blowing him away. He tried to hang on to himself, grunting through its attempt to whisk him off his feet. It was enough to push him back, sending him right by the outer perimeter.

"G-Grah…!"

His clothes were still ruffling wildly as he began turning his head, tempted to simply run away before anything else could happen, but before the thought could even finish, the brightness had suddenly died down and the dust that kicked up in its wake was the only thing.

Hacking and coughing from the debris, he tried to sweep it away only to see a shadow of a figure some meters away from him. Kurogane widened and took one more step back, unknown if this person had been friend or foe, but as the dust settled, the answer hadn't been anymore clear.

However, what was clear was the mystery of the situation.

Next to the animal pelt, a girl had now been standing nearby, as if she had shown up out of thin air.

Her verdant clothing had been particularly odd; it was nothing he had ever seen before, as its skirt almost leapt out from the black stem with a golden pattern lined along from her modest chest to her slim stomach. Her blonde hair had been sketched out and kept untidy, as if every strand had a different direction it wanted to end at, but it all came together with her green bangs; it was kept mostly away from her stern, collected and dignified expression.

Her eyes were particularly beautiful nevertheless, holding some type of softness underneath the layers of unspoken emotions in the emerald-amber eyes. And in the midst of her fascinating sights, her ears had twitched, but they were not one of a human.

They were cat ears that were positioned on her head, just as a cat would have on their own head. Not to mention that behind her had been a tail that draped down, reaching a bit past the levels of her knees which had been covered by an alluring set of black leggings.

Kurogane was left speechless.

His heart started pounding loud enough that his ears could only hear it. His chest tightened up upon laying his eyes on the mysterious girl and his face felt like it was going to burn off. His throat felt like there was something _grabbing_ it firmly as if it was capturing him in his _thoughts_.

However, he wasn't scared.

In fact, he wanted to come closer to her.

(_What in the world…?_)

"_I ask of you_," the girl talked with almost a commanding air, holding tightly to the black bow she had in her hands. Her voice was as intoxicating to his mind than he could ever expect. "Are you worthy of being my _Master_?"

His hands couldn't stop shaking and he glanced down at them, trying to hold them still, but he noticed some type of red tattoo, suddenly appearing on his hand. He didn't know what this had been for or how it even got there, but for some reason, those concerns never surfaced more than his subconsciousness.

He had so many questions about what was happening.

He had so many answers he needed to hear about.

However, despite the long list of what he could say, he couldn't think straight.

It turned out that his father was right all along.

_Love __does_ make you do crazy things.

/

"Please!" Kurogane shouted. "Please marry me!"


	2. Chapter 2 : Contract of Vows

**Chapter 2 / Contract of Vows**

* * *

Kurogane wanted to kill himself, dying out of embarrassment as he realized what he had just proclaimed to a girl he hadn't even met for a single minute, not to mention that he never exchanged any words of pleasantries to her. Having his first words be a marriage proposal was something he himself never anticipated and if his face hadn't been blushing already, it was a crimson beet red now.

She looked over to him with a rather distasteful expression, but it seemed like she was used to getting random marriage proposals from her calm posture and an annoyed sigh. He would have expected there to be a more open response that included calling him crazy, but she stayed silent, scanning her surroundings as if that had more precedence than whatever he just said.

In his mind, that was his chance to recover.

"S-Sorry about that," he stuttered, scratching his head. He then bowed his head, trying to regain any semblance of dignity left. "I'm K-Kurogane. I-I… uhm…"

Her eyes darted back to him as she finally took notice of the markings on his left hand.

"You are my Master?"

"... Your _what_?"

"Very well. The contract is complete." She placed her smooth hands on her modest chest. "I am a spirit of the Archer Class and I will fight alongside you for the Holy Grail. I hope we get along, Master."

Trying not to be mesmerized by the tone of her words, he knew he actually had to register what she was saying and thinking back on it, what she said still made no sense at all. Taking a step back from his blinded love-at-first-sight, _none_ was what was happening and made _ANY_ sense!

"Okay, hold on! _Time out_!"

"Is there a problem?"

"So many problems! What is this Master thing that you're on about!? A contract of what!? What the hell are these tattoos on my hand that suddenly appeared!? Where did you even come from!?" Kurogane started swaying his hands around frantically. "I don't even know what this supposed 'Holy Grail' is!"

He knew he threw a lot of questions at the unknown girl, but frankly, he was too distressed by the situation to even consider anything else, but he took one more step back to see what his demands were flowing out of him way too quickly. He subconsquentially backed off, especially after seeing the girl raise an eyebrow.

"S-Sorry about that outburst. My head's just spinning right now and I don't understand what's going on, especially when the only reasonable explanation to me is something supernatural." He held the black bangs of his head backwards. "I know nothing good comes out when confusion is all I can take and give, but I don't even know where to start."

The mysterious girl merely glanced at him, causing him to blush slightly from keeping eye contact with her. Kurogane couldn't remain sane if he continued, averting his sight away from her, but it turned out that she hadn't been looking at him.

She walked by him as Kurogane turned around, immediately remembering what was behind him.

He didn't even know how he managed to forget there was a dead body behind him.

She knelt down, as if to inspect the body, before speaking aloud.

"Method by poison. Despite having no knowledge of your circumstances, you seem to have some level of experience with killing." Her voice had been truthfully cold, but Kurogane somehow saw it as attractive, despite what topic she had actually been saying. "It will be difficult to find victory in this war, but it is not entirely impossible with this level of prowess."

"Experience with killing?"

It took Kurogane a few moments to figure out that _he_ was the one she was talking about.

"Wait, no! I didn't do that!"

"You didn't?"

"Why would I kill him!? I was just trying to return something to him when I stumbled upon his dead body!"

"Then we're back to square one with the seemingly impossible task," she said, sighing as she stood up. "I cannot work much with a Master that cannot keep up the pace with me."

He felt like he was intentionally being left out of this two-person conversation. He tried his best to make deductions at what she could possibly be referencing, but didn't exactly have the context for there to be educated guesses in the first place. She was lucky that she was cute as heck or else Kurogane would have been much more frustrated.

However, Kurogane missed the fact that she essentially called him useless.

"Despite what my personal gripes are, the contract has already been made. There's not much I can do about it and I pray to Artemis that you won't slow down our chances of achieving our victory. I sincerely hope that you can make up for your lack of knowledge with a better sense of adaptation."

"I can't adapt if I don't know what's going on!" He was grabbing the strains of his hair, but he broke it all into one collective sigh, dropping his arms downwards. He felt defeated, even before getting a single clear response. "It's way too dark for these types of shenanigans. Gotta take the simple steps first."

"If you're uninformed about the Holy Grail War, I may be able to provide you some information to keep you up to speed."

"No, I need simpler steps."

He took a deep breath as he glanced around. He didn't want to simply leave the black-suited man's corpse laying about. Though, he didn't have a shovel to bury the body to give the man rest nor did his phone receive any signal when he checked it. Ignoring him was his only choice, sadly enough.

Kurogane went over to the next chain of thoughts. He could have asked about herself, but there were better priorities in mind, now that he calmed down.

Somehow, he calmed down.

In some respect, he was going to thank this girl for unintentionally helping him do so, feeling that the blush never left his face.

"If… you're not going to hurt or anything like that," Kurogane wryly said, noticing the bow in her hand, "do you mind helping me find my friends? We got separated and accidentally came across this magic circle or whatever this was. I thought they would come running when that flash of light happened, but…"

"This is a bounded field. If you're friends weren't mages or eligible candidates, it would make sense that they would never be able to find this location. This area and the outside area have been completely split up and those who aren't conscious of it will be subconsciously turned away."

"Things like that exist?"

Her cat ears twitched along her feline-like senses, swaying her tail slightly back-and-forth. "If you're trying to find anyone that's outside the bounded field, I don't sense any normal humans."

There was some relief nesting in his lungs. "So they made it out of the forest already without me."

He pulled out his phone again, thinking about the messages that would have been sent, but unreceived. "If I leave this bounded field, would my phone get the notifications again?"

"I would presume so."

Kurogane had no real say in the matter, except for what felt like the natural decision. He simply needed to pick up everything and head back out, but he really didn't want to leave the girl. He honestly, despite what confusing things happened, wanted to know about her.

Never mind all this magic cult thing. Never mind what a Holy Grail is or how he got the marks on his left hand. Never mind even the dead body nearby.

_She _was the thing that he was the most curious about.

He took a step towards a single direction and looked over his shoulder. The girl stood there silently, giving Kurogane the notion that she would be cleaning all of this up and he expected that the next morning, none of what he saw would still be here. Including her.

His heart tightened in that thought, so he turned around once more.

"Will I… be seeing you again?"

"Of course. You summoned me here, intentionally or not, so I will have to stay by your side."

Kurogane froze, not sure if he heard that properly.

"Come again?"

"I'm your Servant and you're my Master. After our contract, we must now fight together in the Holy Grail War." The girl's eyebrows had narrowed downwards in almost a disapproval glare. "I believe I told you this already."

Kurogane had no idea how to feel about this, but if he had to say anything, he was probably gushing with joy. It was a confused happiness, but it was one of such nevertheless. He still needed to cover grounds to make sure he wasn't jumping to any conclusions.

"What about this entire environment? Is it just going to be left here?"

"That's none of my concern," she shook her head. "I had no part of any of the deliberate setup and I was simply summoned by your hand. That is all that I'm involved with."

"So you're coming with me? Do you even have a place to stay?"

"As I have stated _repeatedly_, I was just summoned."

Her narrowed eyes and annoyed frown was enough for Kurogane to stiffen his back, but oddly enough, he didn't mind that expression of hers too much. He was worried that this interaction was going to be awakening something weird inside his personality.

"Well, my house doesn't really have an extra room available for you yet. There's one that we're using as a type of storage room, but it's not really a place that a girl like you should be sleeping in, but we can definitely support an extra person in the family!"

She shook her head softly. "That is unneeded. We, as Servants, exist to fight on our desire to obtain the Holy Grail. Nuisances such as sleep are unnecessary, so a room is not needed for me."

"N-No!" Kurogane snapped towards the girl, almost pouting in her rejection. "I can't just let you go about wherever! At the end of the day, you'll need a place to sleep and relax alongside some privacy! I'll see if my parents can help rearrange one of the rooms for it to be better for spending time in!"

"You are wasting your energy on such—"

"Ah, but she's going to stay under the roof as me…!" Kurogane's realization caused him to turn his back with a glistening crimson colour covering his face. If he didn't know any better, his actions would have reflected the typical female protagonist in a highschool romance comedy. "I-I don't know if I can take this!"

"Did you hear me? I don't need a—"

"T-Then where is she going to sleep for the night? My parents are busy dealing with the reservations and my sister should already be asleep! And there's no way I can just toss her on the living room couch!"

The mysterious girl soon noticed that her Master was drifting off in his own little world and had enough of his tomfoolery. She pulled the string of her bow and out of thin air, an arrow appeared as she aimed down her sights on the target. Without any hesitation, she released her shot.

Wind soared right next to Kurogane's face, taking off some of the hair that was off on the side of his head. He felt it, just to make sure it hadn't been his imagination, but the arrow that landed right onto the tree in front of him had been proof enough.

He looked over to the culprit as she looked like she was at her wit's end and she wasn't finished. She pulled another arrow and aimed it with the next shot aiming for his throat.

"I'd ask you to take your involvement in this war seriously." Her voice was growling at him. "I refuse to believe that my Master is as foolhardy as you."

Putting himself in her shoes, as much he could, he started to see her side of the narrative. His body relaxed a little, grabbing back the sanity he had before he even entered the forest, and gave the girl a straight expression. She had been a bit surprised that he had recovered so easily and had the sense that the threat was no longer needed, adjusting her aim downwards.

He then bowed his head, one that felt more intentional than his previous one.

"I'm really sorry then."

Kurogane felt his chest, beating softly and hard at the same time.

"I… never felt this way before, so I might have acted out of line. That marriage proposal at the beginning was very distasteful. I can see that and I can see why you think I'm a fool, but I won't take back the feelings that I conveyed through those words. They're truthful and yet, they're inexplicable."

He started regretting all of his ignorance towards his father whenever he spoke of such a topic, but all he knew was that he needed to speak from the heart if there was any opportunity to restore his chances. She was listening attentively, so something had been working.

"I'm not sure what this entire Master and Servant relationship is going on, but if it's needed to be discussed, we should probably move to a safer place." He unclipped his flashlight from his belt and turned it on, pointing it to the direction he came from. "Come on, let's leave. I have to get home before midnight and if my friends are already gone, then there's no real reason for me to hang around here."

The girl nodded, about to follow his reasonable logic, before he stopped her with a hand.

It hadn't been the normal stopping signal, but instead, it was an extension and an offer to take her hand.

"It's a bit late for this, but let me introduce myself properly. My name is Kurogane Yoshida, your normal highschool student with a dad that owns a cafe. If the name's too long, you can always call me by 'Kuro'. It's nice to meet you."

She reciprocated, feeling the sudden maturity overcoming her Master. If it was forced or not, she didn't know, but would rather have this side of her Master over the foolish one that had been present previously.

"You may call me by Archer. Setting whatever previously happened aside, it is a pleasure to meet you as well, Master."

Their hands held together and Kurogane couldn't help himself when he flustered, feeling the Archer's soft skin. He wanted to keep his hand there for a little longer, but she broke it off before he could truly savour the feeling.

He pulled back his hand and stared at it, almost giggling to himself before he managed to catch it at his throat. To help ease it, the other matter that he was wondering crossed his mind.

"Hey, I know I'm your… Master or something, but do you really have to call me by that? I'm fine if you refer to me by my actual name, you know. 'Kuro', 'Kurogane' and even 'Yoshida' are on the table."

Archer walked right past him.

"I'll be referring to you as Master."

(_Rejected, huh?_)

/

Kurogane was checking his phone, seeing all the amassed notifications from Riku. It was all spamming attempts to see where he had been and trying to make contact for the last hour or so. There were messages, but there were also missed calls. He knew that despite their departure, they were still worried, so he gave them a call to let them know he was safe.

The first thing he heard from Riku was a lot of disciplining, especially on the topic of sticking together. It was almost on the level of when his mother would be angry about something wrong he did, finding himself mindlessly nodding to what Riku had gone on about.

He gave the excuse that his phone had suddenly dropped its signal, which wasn't an entire lie. Thugh, he hadn't been sure if he should have talked about what he had experienced, even glancing over to Archer to see if she was fine with it.

She was not.

Apparently, this supposed 'Holy Grail War' and its details were supposed to remain a secret to the public for their own safety, so he was forced to be vague and said that he really got lost in there, managing to escape after a while. Riku sounded skeptical, but he honestly didn't care, as long as Kurogane hadn't gotten himself killed.

He said that he would message Akio that he was safe and sound.

After everything was said and done on that end, he checked his phone once more.

The time has been half an hour before midnight. Not exactly a record for staying outside at night, but his father must have been wondering where the hell he was, despite having the deadline be at midnight on the spot. It was only a twenty minute walk, so he'll be able to arrive beforehand.

The first half of his return was spent in silence.

Archer didn't seem too phased by this, but Kurogane thought it was rather awkward. There was more than one way to know who a person is that didn't include asking them directly.

"The moon's pretty bright out tonight."

"So it is."

End of conservation.

Kurogane didn't know how his social skills were failing him now. He had to get used to talking to strangers all the time, due to his job as a waiter and never once did he find it uncomfortable. Well, other than the black-suited man, but he assumed that speaking to a potential crush would have been the same as any other person.

He was wrong. He was _very _wrong.

He tried to build up another attempt.

"Hey, is Archer your real name? It doesn't really seem to fit you."

"I am an archer with proof of my bow." She held her weapon up for Kurogane to see. "I would disagree to say that it doesn't fit me, but to address your prior question, no. Archer is not my real name and I will not disclose it to you."

"H-Huh? Why not!?" Kurogane pouted, stopping right in front of her. "I'm sure your name's as beautiful as you are!"

Archer chose to ignore that specific remark, but addressed its message. "It is not whether I appreciate my name or not."

"Then what is it?"

"It's much better to limit my name's exposure whenever I can. Since Servants come across time and space, along history and legends, having my name is almost like having my weakness in plain sight. I would rather not have that revealed, if enemies may be listening in or that you accidentally say it out loud."

Kurogane gasped. "Enemies? We're going to be fighting people!?"

Archer merely sighed out of disbelief, shaking her head. "That's the essence of the Holy Grail War. You cannot have a war without enemies to fight."

"_Seriously_?" Kurogane whispered to himself, feeling sweat drop from his forehead.

He only had simple intentions when he entered into the forest, but it resulted in him accidentally entering into some type of underground war? If someone told him that he was dreaming, he would have believed them without a single doubt. Kurogane definitely wanted to stay with Archer, but he didn't know if he could hurt other people in order to do such a thing.

Though, he settled that matter aside for now as Archer moved around him, beckoning him to continue guiding her to his home. Taking a gulp, he sped up down the sidewalk and followed the path back home, reaching the river that flowed right in front of the building.

People were starting to leave through the cafe's second entrance, normally meant for the second, more classier, reservation room. It was probably much easier to side himself through those doors, but he looked over to Archer and her feline features.

That was probably going to pull some attention.

He still had his keys with him, so he walked around to the backside of the cafe and unlocked that entrance. It looked more like a home rather than an actual area seen for a restaurant, as Kurogane removed his shoes with Archer surveying her surroundings once more. This time, it had been for another reason.

She noticed family pictures of her Master, standing with his parents and a little girl presumed to be his sister. It looked like they were standing in front of a well-structured foundation, commonly seen at tourist attractions.

There were a few more scattered about, showing the children's development from their smaller years to the present day and there was no signs of that trend stopping with all the empty space reserved.

However, there was one thing that remained consistent throughout the entirety of the photos. Everyone had been happy with smiles. She understood that this had been a family that truly cherished each other and she felt a bit of envy seeing that, but that had no real influence on how she intended to treat her inexperienced Master.

Quiet footsteps along the hardwood floor came around the corner and it wasn't keen to have a peek before running out. Her Master must have been expecting such an event since he turned around as he got off his second shoe and opened his arms.

A black cat, striped in silver along the forehead, had jumped at him.

"Ah, Kuko! I thought you were already asleep with Shiro already!"

"_Meow~_!"

The cat had affectionately rubbed its head against her Master who had quite the smile, rubbing the pet's head with the same level of love.

"Yeah, I missed you too! Sorry about returning so late, but I'll be busy for a little longer. I haven't even taken my shower yet. Head off to sleep with Shiro, alright?"

"_Meow~_!"

He wasn't exactly sure if Kuko truly understood what he said, but the cat had cheekily leapt off in order to run back upstairs. However, the cat didn't leave until he got a good look at Archer, as if the cat had been sizing her up. Kurogane looked back and forth, believing there was some type of silent cat language he was missing out before Archer shrugged, not being a part of this interaction.

"You'll be busy for a little longer?" Archer inquired. "So we'll be talking about your circumstances immediately?"

"Not particularly, but we could talk a bit about it before I get a little tired," Kurogane answered, standing up as he stretched. "I still need to figure out what I need to tell my parents though. I don't think they'll have the greatest reaction when I tell them I brought a girl home."

Kurogane wasn't able to create a fabricated story as to why he would be bringing Archer to his home in the first place. He would have tried on the way back, having at least thirty minutes, but he was much more distracted by other… _trivial _things. such as admiring Archer underneath the moonlight's shimmer.

Alright, he pretty much deserved to be in this situation.

"You expect them to not want me here?"

"Well, no. The opposite, actual—"

"Kurogane, you're finally home? You sure took your time."

His father's rough voice had crawled from the hallway that led directly into the kitchen's storage. He had a cloth in his hand, drying them off after a quick wash and considering the crowd that was departing, his father's job had already finished up recently.

"Oh, hey! Nice to see you, dad! You, uhm, need some helping cleaning up?"

The attempt to divert attention away from the blatant new face was unsuccessful as his father immediately pointed to Archer. The time he wished he could have bought was merely a fantasy dream.

"Who's that?"

"A friend," he reactively answered. "She's a friend."

"Never seen her around before." Kurogane got shivers, merely based on his father's new tone. There was no need to even see his smirk-filled face. "You've been keeping her a secret from me?"

"She just hasn't been brought up," he said, scratching his neck as sweat started to form. "I don't talk about all my friends to you, dad. No parent in their right mind would infiltrate their kid's life like that."

"Oh? Is that right?" His father's eyebrows were raised while he narrowed his eyes. "It's getting really late out there. It's rather usual for you to be bringing home a girl at this time, much less a girl that hasn't been here yet."

Kurogane gulped. "Well, things happened! She needs a place to stay and I ended up offering for her! We still have a spare room that we're using as storage, right? She can easily use that!"

"Has she already contacted her parents or was this a run-away from home situation?"

"I-It's been agreed on by them!" He really didn't expect his father to be playing twenty questions with him, though he was predicting _some_ level of interrogation. Kurogane simply didn't think it would happen immediately. "There's no need to contact her parents! It's all said and done!"

His father never wiped the smirk off his face and slowly approached his son. He took another look at the impromptu visitor and returned his gaze to Kurogane. Lowering his head to meet his eye level, his dad tapped Kurogane on both shoulders rather firmly.

"You know you stand your left foot on your toes when you lie, right? Your crossing arms are also a more subtle hint."

Kurogane glanced downward to see just that, depressing himself into a pout after fixing them.

"Y-Yeah… I know, but I'm really trying to get rid of that habit…"

Archer noticed the gestures as well, but decided to hold back on any more opinions that might blacken her perspective on her Master anymore. It was already pretty bad, but having the inability to lie properly might just take the cake.

"So who is this really?"

Kurogane held his tongue and regretfully averted his eyes.

"I… I can't say."

"I see. Hopefully, you didn't get wrapped up in anything too crazy here!" his father laughed. Kurogane could only wryly laugh alongside him before his father released him to move over to the girl. "So my son has offered housing to you, huh? He doesn't usually do such a thing, even for his friends that I know, so you have to really be special to have him agree without even consulting me."

"Indeed," she nodded. "I am very grateful for your son to be helping me out, but due to my circumstances, I've asked your son to keep my reasons for being here a secret. They're rather personal and I'd prefer if only a limited amount of people knew."

"There isn't any problem," he chuckled amusingly. "If my son trusted you, I have all the reason to believe that you're not a bad person. It'll take a few days for everything to get sorted, so Kurogane here will have to figure out your sleeping arrangements until then. Would that alright?"

"I entrusted him for the finer details," Archer responded rather lacklusterly. "I'll heed his words as well as yours, as the owner of this establishment."

"And Kurogane?" His father looked over his shoulder. "Will you take responsibility for her?"

Kurogane got flustered. "When you word it like that, it… sounds a bit…"

His father let out a hearty laughter, but not loud enough to wake anyone on the upper floors. His white teeth shined through, realizing who this person truly was in his son's eyes. He never thought such a day would come so quickly, but despite how much he would talk about it with sparkling eyes, he knew when the day finally came, his father had to wear a cap of maturity to help his son out.

"Kurogane, my boy. You'll do fine." His father gave him a reassuring smile. "We'll continue this conversation later when you're available, but for now, I think you should tend to your lady friend here. Don't spend too long past midnight. That's all I ask and we'll figure out the specifics tomorrow."

He passed his son and started walking upstairs, but not before whispering encouragement in his ears.

"_Good luck._"

Kurogane never thought that his father's words of love support would help out.

"_Thanks, dad._"

His father left those two promptly and once he reached the top of the stairs, he took one quick glance back at them before turning the corner. Kurogane managed to calm down back to his neutral mentality, even with Archer in the vicinity as he looked over to her.

"C'mon, follow me."

He entered the kitchen, noticing that Mister Yamada had already gone home, given the turned off lights and cleaned up workstations. He turned the lights back out and accessed the cafe's connection entrance, leading them to the cafe's front. Turning on only the lights that hung over the counter, he gestured to Archer to take a seat.

As she did, Kurogane told her to give him a quick minute as he rushed back into the kitchen. She didn't know what her Master was intending to do, but he returned out with a plate with food on it.

"You're hungry, Master?"

"No, not really. This is for you."

Archer sighed in disapproval. "I told you that Servants are meant to fight. In addition to sleeping, we do not get hungry like a normal human."

"Then that's the more reason that you should eat up, right?"

Kurogane slid the plate over to Archer and she finally saw what was on it, she had instinctively flinched. The scent had been quite alluring as she could feel his mouth watering, merely based on what it had been. Topped off with some fruits and some type of cream, it looked inviting to dig in and Kurogane could see that flicker of defenselessness in her cold, stern eyes.

"Being hungry doesn't necessarily equal the desire to eat. If you think that you don't have to indulge in food, just because you never get hungry, you're really missing out on an entire world of taste. Just like how children play games with each other and people enjoy taking long walks, none of those are really needed, but they're satisfying to them."

Kurogane offered the cafe's special menu item with a fork and a smile.

"This is the Golden Apple Pie. Our most popular dessert and the one that we're widely known for."

"_Golden… Apple_…"

"Is there something wrong?"

She silently stared at the meal, wanting to grab the fork, but it was as if her own pride had been stopping her for whatever reason. Kurogane looked at her confusingly before he finally spoke up.

"Is there a particular reason why it is named as such?"

"It was my dad that came up with the recipe, but it was me that came up with the name," he answered, taking up a seat behind the counter in front of her. "From my limited understanding from mythology, golden apples were the symbol of temptation. It supposingly gave you immortality and power, but I centered the name around the desire to have one."

Archer remained quiet, but she took up her fork.

"It was my friends that helped me come up with the idea," he continued, "but the resulting name was finalized by my dad and I. The rest was history, but I was a kid when my dad asked me to help out with this. I'm just as surprised now that my dad even allowed that name in the first place!"

With a bit of cream and a piece of fruit, Archer sectioned off a small part of the pie and took her first bite. Kurogane couldn't lie; he was holding his breath in anticipation the entire time she chewed, but when she swallowed it down his worries went away.

"_It's good_." Paired with a quiet voice, she was about to go for a second bite.

"Hey, it's the first time you smiled after meeting me."

"Huh?"

Archer didn't even realize it herself, quickly brushing it off her face.

"It's a beautiful expression of yours. I wouldn't mind it if you smiled a bit more."

"I-I was summoned to _fight_, not to eat." With almost a sudden snarl to cover her emotions up, she pushed the pie stubbornly away, trying to in turn keep the topic straight and undiverted from the main course. "If you're trying to lower my defenses, that's a foolish thing to do to your own Servant."

Kurogane could really only brush her words off like a joke, wryly groaning in the shadow of Archer's words. He supposed she really did want to get down to business and he felt obliged to listen in, needing to know what the hell is going on.

"So what's going on?"Kurogane's voice deepened as he took away the slice of pie. He could see that she died a little inside when it was taken away, but he didn't mind the light teasing for now. "What happened in that forest and what did I inadvertently sign myself up to?"

"I should begin with the Holy Grail War."

There were apparently some intrintric details that Kurogane wouldn't have understood, considering he was an outsider that stumbled his way into the war, but the basic was as follows.

There were seven people, chosen by this supposed Holy Grail to be Masters. These Masters would be able to summon heroic spirits ranging from space, time and stories, whether they be fiction or legends. These heroic spirits were called Servants and they were the key to achieving victory for their Masters, being the focal strength and power that would pave its road.

Once all the Servants had been defeated except for one, the pair of Master and surviving servant would be granted a single wish, unlimited in its potential.

However, Kurogane was scratching his head at the whole notion of this Holy Grail War.

"That sounds way too good to be true, but if it is, it's pretty understandable why there would be a war to fight for that single wish." Kurogane, however, leaned onto the counter, grimacing at the idea. "It just sounds like something pulled right out of a fictional book."

"It is not. I am living proof of that."

"Yeah, I know. I don't doubt the existence of this supposed Holy Grail, especially from your words, but…"

"Do you not have a wish yourself that you want to be granted?"

Kurogane shook his head. "I'm not this special guy who trained his life in order to participate in this war with the goal to win or anything. The average person doesn't just think about a super wish that would grant anything they desired and besides, I'm pretty happy with my life. I think if I'd been given a wish as that, I think I'd go for something generic like world peace."

"Peace is an admirable wish. You would be surprised how little people would select peace over their own selfish desires."

"Yeah, but it lacks imagination and creativity," he joked.

Archer felt quite opposed to that comment, but her thoughts were distracted, seeing her Master was holding his left hand up towards the lights. His apparent tattoo, called Command Seals, were shaped like a flame, sectioned off into three individual portions that made up the whole image, while a single line had cut through at a slight slant.

She told him that these were his status as a Master in the war, like a license to drive a car. However, he was able to use such seals up to three times to give Archer an absolute command that she must follow. The thought of forcing her to do something she might not want to do had a sour taste in his mouth and he really didn't want to cross that thought again.

"But the Holy Grail still found me worthy enough to enter in its mundane task of fighting?" he said, squinting his eyes at the mark. "I don't even know how to fight, much less survive in a war."

"The Holy Grail wouldn't have given you your Command Seals if that was not the case."

"I worry that I might end up slowing you down."

"There is not much of a problem. I possess Independent Action, so I may be able to act by myself without your influence."

"I don't know what that is, but it sounds good." He shot out a thumbs-up with a small grin to tag on, but his gaze managed to find itself back to the Command Seals. "Though, I can't still wrap my head around trying to fight people and potentially kill them."

"They are Servants. We simply return to the Throne of Heroes when we fall in battle, but should you want the battle to be finished by proxy, killing the Master is always an effective method."

"And I would rather avoid that option if it's unneeded."

Kurogane sighed, dropping his hand back on the table.

"Not sure if I can properly do anything here. I'm sure that all of our opponents are going to be experienced in their arts and know how to play the battlefield to their advantage while I fumble around, depending everything on you."

"If you wish, there should always be an overseer for the Holy Grail War. Though I have no clue who that might be this time around, if you are able to encounter them, he would be able to remove your right as a Master and transfer my ownership to another eligible Master."

He widened his eyes. "Wait, I can just… leave?"

"You'll be protected by the overseer while the Masters have no other reason to fight you."

It was honestly quite the tempting decision to track down this supposed overseer, but he thought about it for a minute. If he forfeited his Command Seals and exited the Holy Grail War safely, he wouldn't be able to see Archer again. She stole his heart and whether he didn't want it back, he certainly didn't want her to be leaving with it.

He covered his mouth, trying to think about what it was he should do.

It was quite the dilemma, but somewhere inside of him, he knew he already made his decision. It just took some time to come to terms with it and find the words for it.

"Not interested. I'm going to fight."

"May I ask why? You just said you didn't have a specific wish."

"But you do. Don't you?"

Archer's mouth slightly opened up, a bit surprised at her Master's answer.

"Whatever your wish may be, I want to grant your wish, Archer." Kurogane made a light-hearted smile. "As embarrassing it might be, I fell in love with you at first sight. Not that it was any unexpected news, given I immediately proposed to you as my first words, but even if you won't reciprocate my feelings, I want to help you out."

"You don't even know what I want to wish for."

"I don't care," he answered quickly, pulling back in amusement. "I know that it's not going to be anything horrible! I trust you enough that those details won't matter in the long-run!"

"You already trust me?"

To be honest, Archer should have already known such a thing. Any normal civilian, when told that they've just entered an underground war, featuring heroic spirits to serve underneath them, would have dismissed the idea as some type of crazy madman's rambling.

Her Master, on the other hand, had earnestly been trying to understand and comprehend everything that she mentioned so far, leaving whatever stones that he notices unturned. He never acted like he wasn't paying attention and he never acted disinterested in it either.

"Of course I believe you. As my dad would say, love can make you do some crazy things sometimes. Even entering a war."

Kurogane went over to take the pie slice and brought it back to Archer. Her cat ears had twitched and her tail wagged a bit, seeing the delicious dessert return to her lap, causing him to feel quite bliss nestling in his heart.

"If you're not going to sleep, I won't stop you. It's your decision at the end of the day."

He pushed the plate forwards along with the used fork.

"But I want you to know that I'll be there for you. Even if I'm a fourth-rate Master with fifth-rate skills, I want to provide as much support to you as I can in order for us to win you your wish." He knew that he sincerely felt this way about Archer, seeing her once more in the seat. As he released the plate, his hand instead reached for her tender fingers that were looking to grab the fork. "That's my promise to you. A proposal can't ever begin without one party sacrificing something of theirs first and foremost, right?"

Archer remained silent at his rhetorical question, but there was a smile hiding underneath her averted gaze. It was a soft one, but Kurogane could still see it from his angle, though it seemed a bit bitter for some reason.

"_Yeah_…"

"Finish up the dessert, alright?" Kurogane started to yawn. "I have to leave, take a shower and head to sleep. I'm no Servant here like you, I'm just your everyday high school student. It would be a bad habit to develop, especially when school starts up again, so if there's anything else we need to talk about, we can leave it for another time."

Kurogane let out another yawn and a great big stretch upwards with his arms.

"I don't want to see a single crumb on that plate when I come down in the morning! It would be a waste to throw it out when you enjoyed it so much!"

With Kurogane leaving with a big smirk on his face, Archer soon found herself alone, touching the crispy crust with the fork underneath the sole set of lights. She didn't know what type of expression she had at the moment, but she definitely knew something for certain.

Her Master had been a great fool when it boiled down to it.

The concern was left to whether she had minded it or not, given that the answer could not have been found so easily, unlike the taste of the Golden Apple Pie. _That_, on the other hand, had been extremely delicious.

* * *

**Author's Notes**

This has been a long time coming, but I was never really satisfied with how I started this fic.

It took some time to nail what was wrong, but I think this is the final version of this opening sequence.

Thanks for holding on for all this time. I'll be able to continue updates further into the story, knowing that what I have here is my ideal beginning.


	3. Chapter 3 : Early Excursion

**Chapter 3 / Early Excursion**

* * *

The next morning came much sooner than Kurogane expected it to.

In some sense, everything that happened yesterday night felt like a dream. If he had to be honest with himself, he was half-expecting himself to wake up in the middle of the forest with the sun, shining down as to mock him. To be back on his bed was a blessing, but he hadn't escaped the neck of the woods yet.

He needed to see her again to make sure that everything really happened.

The fact that he encountered that odd ritual. The fact that he unknowingly joined a war and stayed of his own volition. The fact that he fell in love with her.

His hand reached out to the alarm clock to check what time it was. He didn't have any shifts at the cafe today, for his father refused to give him too many. He worked as much as a regular part-timer with some occasional long hours if his father was in desperate need of someone on such short notice and if he had free time.

Kurogane must have forgotten to set up the alarm last night since he slept past that point. He knew Archer must have been waiting patiently downstairs with, hopefully, an empty plate, so he knew he needed to act quickly.

Though, he really did wonder if Archer stayed there the entire time.

He never really _told_ her to stay there, but thinking back, it was probably implied.

It didn't matter in the end. As Kurogane brought himself sitting up on his bed, he quickly got his answer.

"Good morning, Master."

"G-Good… morning…"

Sitting at his desk, Archer was waiting. There was nothing else to describe her presence before him; she was quite literally doing nothing except for watching him and it didn't take much for Kurogane to be startled.

"Is there a problem?"

"N-No! There's absolutely no problem!" Instinctive answers were the only thing he was capable of in the early morning. "I-I wasn't surprised or anything! Nope, not me!" He trailed off his denial with an awkward laugh.

Archer let out a deep sigh, probably believing that her Master was on his last few brain cells.

"Anyways, as you are relatively caught on on the bare essentials of the Holy Grail War from last night, I would like to suggest that we go over a few tactics. I'm no professional when it comes to these things, but I believe I've been in my fair share of fights in my life in order to have a good grasp of it."

"H-Huh?" Kurogane raised his eyebrows. "S-So early in morning? I just woke up! I haven't even gotten out of night clothes yet!"

"The Holy Grail War does not casually wait around for people to get themselves ready. If we are to win, as you desired from your _proclamation_, then we must have a plan to counteract your lack of skills as a proper Master."

Archer stood up from the seat and walked over, crossing her arms with a frown. Her sternness was something that looked like she was adamant about, but Kurogane found the attitude to be part of beauty and couldn't stop staring into her eyes.

They were cold, but they were warm at the same time, causing Kurogane to glance away like his eyes were starting to hurt from looking at the bright sun. His face even felt a bit burned up, knowing that his love was truly something that wasn't out of a dream.

It might have been sad, maybe even painful, if it was.

"Look, I just want to get dressed up beforehand, Archer. I want to be presentable when I'm with you, especially if we're alone together," he said, trying not to stumble over his words.

"I don't mind your condition as it is."

Kurogane _did_ mind himself like this though.

His hair was still a mess since he didn't properly dry his hair from his late night shower. It was practically flying all over the place compared to his usual straight black configuration with some white highlights here and there. His clothes, added on to that, were nothing that were prim and proper to show to a woman like Archer, even if they were a typical short sleeve shirt and shorts.

Even if Archer said that, he still wanted some private time to clean himself up, but that trail of thinking led him to a sudden remark.

"Wait, were in my room the entire time I was sleeping?"

"How would I be able to keep a careful watch of you if I was not in close proximity?"

He was definitely not sure how to take that response.

"W-Was… Was that a 'yes'?"

Archer didn't want to waste her breath, merely nodding to follow up.

If Kurogane hadn't been red yet, his face was completely boiling. He knew that he talked to himself in his sleep and during some overnight parties with his friends, they would always say that he would mutter some pretty embarrassing things.

He started squealing, raising its pitch up like a black kettle pot.

"H-How long!? How long were you there for!?"

"Since I emptied the plate as you told me to," she answered immediately without even the slightest shift in tone. "I came to your side once I was finished and began my watch over you."

That was more than enough time for her to at least hear _something_ coming out from his mouth, but Kurogane didn't want to bring it up on the possibility that she didn't catch anything. Though, he didn't want to face the off-chance that she _did_ hear him sleep talk and decided to keep quiet about it for the sake of his pride.

Forget messy hair, Kurogane wanted to literally yank his hair out of his head!

"Archer, please! I just need to clean myself up!"

"I thought you took a shower before you rested. Are you not still clean from simply laying in a single place?"

Kurogane didn't answer her and rushed himself to grab his normal clothes off from the hanging rack, while Archer didn't exactly understand what was going through her Master's head at the moment. Distress clearly matched the description, but it was rather unneeded.

"I-I just need a few minutes!"

Kurogane made his final plea as he closed the door behind him and ran off to the washroom, leaving her alone to his room. Seeing him like this, she was having second thoughts on that proclamation from last night and wondered if his words were simply words.

She couldn't exactly think back to it straightly. His words and his emotions felt so genuine that it was exceedingly difficult to brush off as mere words.

Other than following her Master, which she had a feeling he wouldn't allow, she simply needed to wait for him in his room.

She gazed about, not really taking in the surroundings when she entered for the first time.

It was a neatly-kept room with not many things that would suggest any interests and hobbies. There were things like a television and a laptop, but nothing truly stood out from the crowd. Not even the colours had been popping outwards. Some books were present on a shelf next to his desk, but approaching it didn't give off any that she would recognize, not that she read in the first place.

She was more keen on seeing if her Master had knowledge on mythology or history from some of the topics, but they all appear to be recent fictional novels.

It took a few minutes for the door to open back up again as she felt a presence, not exactly like her Master's, but something rather close to his.

"Hey, Big Bro. Daddy's finished with breakfast." A little girl strolled right into the room, a bit sleepy with a quiet and cute yawn. "You're taking so long and daddy needs to set up for the cafe and stuff…"

The girl noticed that the bed was empty and did a little "oh" before turning around to return back out to the hallways. Her eyes caught onto the mysterious woman that was suddenly inside her brother's room and her once tired eyes had popped wide open.

"H-Huh…?"

She was the same girl that she had seen in the photographs downstairs, only slighter older. Her hair was long and black with a somewhat shiny sheen to it with some white hair discolouration at the ends. For the rest, to be blunt, she was basically a female, younger version of him setting aside how their hair was.

"Ah, good morning." Archer, despite not knowing the child, leaned her body down and smiled warmly, contrasting a great difference to how she was acting with her Master. "I know I may not be who you were expecting to be here, but please do not be alarmed. Your brother helped me out last night and he's cleaning in the washroom right now."

The little girl was silent, looking at Archer from head to tail.

Archer wanted to reassure her, but for some reason, she didn't look too scared. If anything, she looked like her eyes were glowing at the sight of her as air started to slowly inhale inside of her.

"A-Ah…"

"Your brother will be here soon and he'll help explain if you trust him more. I understand it."

"Y-You…"

A familiar sight was mirrored as Archer kept looking at the girl.

"You're so pretty! Are you going to be my big sister!?" Her eyes sparkled as she ran up closer to the supposingly mysterious woman, surprising her a bit. "Can you!? Please!?"

Archer had to admit it.

She was _definitely _Kurogane's little sister, if not by blood, then evidently by habit.

/

"You know, I didn't think you would be able to kick it off with Shiro so easily."

"_Meow~_"

"Yeah, you got that right, Kuko. I think."

With the cat munching his food on the side, Kurogane laughed to himself as he watched Shiro happily eat her breakfast while sitting on Archer's lap. His parents thought it might have been a nuisance for the new household member to be preoccupied with such a sudden and odd request, but Archer surprisingly didn't mind it. She was even feeding Shiro the vegetables that she didn't even like touching herself.

It was basically like seeing magic happen before his eyes.

He was still firm on what he said last night, that Archer was much more beautiful when she was smiling happily and whatever his sister was doing to keep her like that, he wanted her to keep doing it. He kept forgetting to touch his food because he kept glancing over, admiring Archer's expressions.

"Is she really staying with us, Big Bro!?"

"Well, I think so. Mom and dad don't seem to have any major complaints about it, right?"Kurogane looked over at his parents who sat on the other side of the table.

"It was really surprising when your dad told me that you brought home a girl," his mother said, holding one of her cheeks. "You were always someone that never focused on those types of relationships, but life is always filled with unexpected turns!"

"I'm sorry to say that I'm not in such a relationship with your son that you're assuming, Missus Yoshida," Archer explained, leaving a bit of a defeated taste in Kurogane's mouth. "However, I am especially glad that he was able to offer me assistance when I needed it the most."

"I could only wonder what happened to you that you needed to be in this situation, but you said that it was very personal, correct?"

"Indeed. That's what I said to Mister Yoshida last night."

His dad nodded in agreement. "Yeah, and it doesn't seem like we're in much of a position to dig deeper into her business. Well, I guess we are technically, but doing so isn't going to help anyone here."

"And I greatly appreciate your mannerisms." Archer made a small bow, trying to not move around Shiro off her lap too much. "As mentioned before, I'll respect any rules and regulations you will place upon me during my stay here. I'm simply glad there is a roof over my head."

"Ah, you poor, poor girl!" Kurogane's mother was in tears, just imagining what Archer might have been through. At this point, he felt like Archer was manipulating his mother's overdramatic sense, but rather it was all unintentional stringing. "Don't you worry, darling! If Kurogane brought you here, then we'll take care of you until you can go back home!"

"Thank you, Missus Yoshida."

"Ah, but there is a slight problem that I have to account for," his father muttered aloud.

"Problem!? How could there be a problem!?"

That was Kurogane's mother, not himself.

Kuroagne couldn't even voice his own concerns beforehand. Hell, he was already expecting there to be some minor complications with bringing Archer to live here and could probably list a few off the top of his head.

"Dear," his father addressed her, somehow being the most mature one here, "our household was only meant to carry four people. If I knew months ahead of time that we would have a fifth member, there wouldn't be such issues of concern, but since this was an overnight decision and execution…"

"You're looking at the sudden cost for her, aren't you?" Kurogane asked.

"Yep. That's exactly right. It's another mouth to feed and another person to buy essentials for," he said, counting the two points on his fingers. "This isn't some apartment complex where we can give her some keys and let her be, but we'll have to act like such on the front. We can't be having two sets of supplies when it's much simpler to have one."

Archer kept quiet about her Servant traits to his parents.

That argument was not going to be flying here if she wanted to keep her own code of conduct of keeping the Holy Grail War a secret to the public.

"Archer, was it?"

She herself had given her name to his parents as the food was plated at the table. His parents thought it was quite an odd name, but they didn't make any noise over it. Though, his mother was very dissatisfied, knowing that her name wasn't as feminine as she believed and thought it was such a waste.

"How long do you need to stay here for?"

"I am unsure," Archer responded. "It may be as short as a week, but it may almost take months for me to finish up and wrap the business that I must complete. You may find this inconvenient, but it is the truth."

"That might be an issue…"

His mother hummed a bit, acting a little conflicted, before sending her a wink.

"Just kidding~! You can stay here as long as you want!"

His father shifted gears over to try and remained the one still on track.

"Do you have any jobs that can provide steady income?"

"Unfortunately, I do not. I have some hunting skills and used that to have some money for myself, but no other formal experience."

"I can pay for her!" Kurogane spat out, leaning forwards on his arms. "If she needs rent to be able to live here, you can deduct the amount from my paycheck! I want to help her out as much as I can!"

"She does need to provide some rent for her to live here," his dad nodded, rather amused at Kurogane's solution, "but that wasn't the line of thought I was thinking about."

"Wait, what are you talking about?"

"If anything, her non-employment status is much more ideal for the circumstances we have in our pockets."

Kurogane tried to follow his father's reasoning here until the lightbulb in his head turned on, letting him gasp his realization. Archer didn't catch the same perspective, tilting her head slightly.

"Weren't you looking for more staff at the front, dad?"

"That's exactly what I was thinking about. Great minds think alike, Kurogane."

His father diverted the attention back to the girl as Shiro finished up the last bits of her meal. It was the first time in a while that Kurogane saw her finish something that had vegetables as the main side, yet she acted like she never even touched them, wagging her legs back and forth.

"Archer, I think it would be a good idea for you to help out with my cafe. The commute is quite literally a flight of stairs and I won't need to have you work too much. Perhaps even on the same shifts as Kurogane. Since you'll be living here, I'll have to take some pay out of your salary to adjust, but you'll still have enough to spend whatever personal needs you have."

"I have no arguments against that. I will do my best to serve your business, Mister Yoshida."

"You didn't even get an interview process," Kurogane jested. "I didn't either, but I know you'll be good enough to adapt quickly to the workforce. It's not that difficult in the first place, just needs some practice and more practice."

"I'll see to it that I learn from you."

"But that does mean you'll have to get a uniform of your own," his father continued. "There's no official brand that we have, but we always try to keep colours matching with a black and white motif. I'd suggest for you to keep it consistent too."

"Ah, but Archer didn't come to our residence with any suitcases, did she?"

It left Kurogane truly pondering on her wardrobe. As a Servant, could she have magically conjured up a new set like one of those magical girls anime shows he heard about, or did she have to change the old fashion way? Either way, there was no reasonable explanation for Archer to provide to his parents if she was going to wear that somewhat outlandish outfit.

"Then she'll have to go buy one. Kurogane, you were offering some money in her place, weren't you?"

"Y-Yeah," he nodded, stopping his gaze onto Archer. "If we need to go shopping for clothes, then I'll be willing to use my savings."

"Oh, I'll come with you, Kurogane!" his mother proclaimed. "It'll be great fun and I'll get to know Archer more!"

"I wanna come too!" Shiro added on, raising her hand.

His father laughed. "I can definitely hold down the fort with the employees that are coming in today. You four have some fun while you're at it, alright? Make sure you find a good outfit for Archer, so she can start training tomorrow."

"We'll leave after breakfast," Kurogane answered.

"Though, you should probably try and finish up that breakfast of yours, first and foremost. You've hardly touched your food when you're usually the first one finished and you'll see why you don't eat these things cold."

"A-Ah, sorry!"

As his father started taking up the empty plates belonging to him, Shiro, and Archer to the sink, his mother leaned in towards him, lowering her voice to ensure Archer hadn't been listening. Kurogane instinctively met her half over the table.

"_You know, I meant to ask this, but what's with Archer's cat ears and wagging tail? Is she what people call these days as cosplayers?_"

Kurogane tried to think of a reasonable answer because being cosplay suggests that his mother would see her without them a couple times, but this could never be the case. There's no way his mother wouldn't be suspicious when the seeming attachments have been seen to detach.

"_S-She has her reasons…_"

"_Well, it's not as if it's super important, but do you know what is important in this situation?_"

"_W-What?_"

The corner of his mother's mouth hung upwards as she cupped her words, blocking it from Archer's view.

"_I need you to marry Archer! She's such a cute darling that I would love as my daughter-in-law! And the children that you two will have…! I can already see my grandchildren being such beautiful babies!_"

His mother was becoming flustered _for_ him, but like mother, like son, Kurogane blushed at her sudden request. His hand fidgeted slightly while his ears turned red, thinking about the possibility.

He knew that it was a difficult road that stood in the way, but his mother was supporting him all the way through, even if it had been for entirely different reasons.

"_I-I'll try my best, mom…_"

Unknown to both of them, the feline ears had not simply been for show. They were exceedingly functional and allowed her to hear even the quietest of noises within a specific range, _especially_ if they had been whispers that were right next to her.

She glanced down to Shiro who looked back with the same sparkling eyes as this morning and then over to Kurogane, who noticed her gaze and staggered his breaths responsively.

(_I suppose the two apples don't fall far from the tree…_)

/

If Kurogane needed to leave outside to do some shopping, it was absolutely required that he needed to hide his Command Seals from proper view. As a symbol of his status of a Master, if any other Masters managed to see it, he would be immediately hunted down as the next opponent on the list and frankly, the way that Archer worded it was much more gruesome and bothersome to him than it should have been.

He tried looking for in-house options that would have helped out the problem at hand and his first thought grivated to some old gloves he remembered having a few years ago.

After pulling Shiro off Archer's leg, quite literally might he add, they returned to his room in order to get changed into proper outdoor clothing, as did his sister and mother for their own respective rooms.

"Ah, here it is."

Out of the drawer, he pulled out a set of fingerless gloves that went a bit past the wrist. He wore them during the late years of his middle school era, simply on the notion that he thought they looked cool. With a sleek black colour on the leather finish, it was difficult for any middle-schooler to not be a bit amazed by it.

However, it looked a bit tacky as the years started to catch up with him, especially with some of the interior fur pieces sticking out intentionally like he was some type of wild delinquent. Now that he thought about it, people with chuunibyou usually wore this; that is, chinnibyou a colloquial term used to describe teenagers who believe they have special powers and act in a relatively flamboyant attitude.

He was _not_ one of those people.

He just thought the glove looked cool, at the time, mind he added.

Wearing the glove onto his left hand, it felt a bit tighter as his hand must have growth during the few years that he abandoned the accessory. He didn't want to force it to fit, in the fear that it might get stuck, but it was far enough to look like he was wearing it properly.

"So, does this work?"

"It does the job properly, so I do not see why not."

"I don't know why I expected any other answer," Kurogane grimaced, "but I guess I should be honest. I don't think I like this."

"Is there some type of problem I was supposed to perceive?"

"Doesn't it look terrible? It just oozes edge factor and it doesn't compliment my appearance all too much."

"Appearance this, appearance that," Archer mulled as she shook her head, disapprovingly. "Master, you keep worrying about your appearances when in reality, appearance doesn't matter when fighting for your life. Only the strong and the smart are the ones that stand up on top."

Kurogane tried to make a few poses in front of his mirror to try to get better angles of the combination of the glove and the person, but no matter what he did, it only felt cringe to him.

"If you don't like it, you can always find another set of gloves."

"These are my only ones."

"_Then stop complaining_ and use them."

"No, there has to be something else we can use."

If Kurogane was going to beat her in the argument, he needed to ground it to something reasonable and he was desperately trying to siphon clues to break it through.

"Actually, I really don't think gloves are the best way here."

"Please explain to me."

"Well, I don't usually _wear_ gloves in the first place nowadays and especially during the summer days where my hand might get sweaty underneath the heat. If my friends ever saw me, they would definitely ask about it. I got a better idea that might be able to be played off more naturally."

Kurogane went out of his room quickly and returned with a first aid kit from the washroom. He placed it on his bed and opened it up, seeing the vast array of emergency tools and dispensables in case anyone in the family got hurt.

However, Kurogane had his eyes on the gauss bandages and held the roll up to Archer, smiling to himself as if he just solved the world's current dilemma.

"If I play it off as an injury," Kurogane said, winking, "no one would be any of the wiser!"

"And yet, you can only advertise it as such for a short duration. You buy some time now, but they will start to become curious once you've worn it for an extended period of time, longer than the duration that it would take to heal up."

Kurogane silently tightened his grip on the gauss.

"Archer, can I just use the gauss for today until I can find a better suited glove?"

"I'm uncertain as to why to need my approval. At the end of it, it's your decision, but if you're looking to buy another set of gloves, then I can wholefully agree with that strategy, if not roundabout in its thinking when we already have a usable pair."

"They aren't usable!"

"They hide the Command Seals perfectly."

"That's not what I meant!"

Kurogane didn't even know why he was having this one-sided argument, but he ended up taking his glove off and tried to wrap the bandages around his Command Seals. His parents would definitely ask questions about the sudden change, but considering how he did his best to hide his left hand by tucking it underneath the table and moving away once no one was looking, it might not have seemed suspicious to them.

As proven before, they were rather easy-going and wouldn't address it much, other than if it's an injury or not. He was intending to answer truthfully, saying that it's not because they wouldn't pry deeper than that.

He didn't have much experience with treating himself, but Archer helped him out begrudgingly. She made the entire process look easy and simple, tearing off once enough layers of the material had been enough to tuck away the bright red colour. It finishes up with a pin to make sure it doesn't unravel itself though continuous movements.

Kurogane glanced at the mirror once more to check out the bandages.

It wasn't wrapped too tightly, giving freedom for his palm to breath, and his fingers remained untouched, for him to perform some certain task without much bothersome nuisances. Added as a bonus, it looked much better than the leather glove, blending it quite nicely without him wanting to gouge his eyes out.

"Now, _this _is an improvement!"

"Not really."

Grabbing a change of clothing to the washroom, as he would usually change in his own room, he returned, hanging up his previous outfit onto the hook. He didn't wear anything too fancy, not that he had such luxurious tastes. It was merely a blue jacket with an empty white shirt underneath while black cargo pants supplied the bottom half. His necklace was visible for the first time to Archer, standing out on his chest.

Archer herself didn't feel the need to change, but Kurogane knew that her feline features would attract too much attention. He brought him over to Shiro's room who was excitedly awaiting to see her again, despite having it been only a few minutes.

Shiro already got changed and had been brushing her hair to be straight. It was a dark blue dress that made her eyes glow up even more than before, paired with white stockings and a few frills at the end.

"Hey, Shiro? Do you have any ribbons that you could lend to Archer?"

"Of course!" she scurried off to grab a handful and offered them to Archer like a bouquet of flowers. "Is there anything you like from this, Big Sis?"

The fact that she was already calling Archer by 'Big Sis' truly meant that she already had a personal attachment to the new household member. Not that Kurogane couldn't understand the feeling, he understood it to great extents.

Archer glanced at the colourful variety that Shiro had, looking a bit torn to select one of the other.

"I'm not sure what to pick," she sweetly said. "Shiro, could you pick it out for me? I would really appreciate that."

Shiro gasped as Archer knelt down for her to start comparing the bow to Archer' beautiful blonde-green gradient hair. The little sister started going through everything, even the ones that were obviously mismatched, but Shiro probably wasn't thinking preemptively and was using her reactionary senses purely with a blinded joy.

Soon, she stopped at a black bow that contained a few golden accents on it.

"This one! This one is perfect for you, Big Sis!"

"Do you have another one of those bows?" Kurogane asked, enjoying the little scene unfolding before him. "She needs two in order to hide those cat ears."

"I do, but I don't understand." Shiro blinked with a slight confusion to her. "Can't Big Sis just take them off?"

"That's uhm… not an option…"

"Why?"

"It's uhm… cursed!" Kurogane said the first thing that popped into his mind. "She can't take them off because she was cursed! Her tail, as well, is part of that curse and she can't remove that either!"

"That's horrible!"

Archer thought it was exceedly horrible as well, seeing her Master tell such an obvious lie to his sister and his sister eating it all up without even doubting his words. She knew that a part of her preferences for children came from their innocence, but something about abusing it rubbed her the wrong way, especially if it wasn't out of malicious intentions.

Though… _it wasn't as if Kurogane was wrong._

However, Shiro started rubbing Archer's head as she glared at Kurogane, softening herself through the head pat.

"There, there, Big Sis. You'll get through your curse sometime in the future! I can help out as much as you want! All you need to do is ask!"

Smiling such a radiant innocence, the similarities between sister and brother started to show themselves even more through their reactions. One just had less of a filter, though… maybe both of them had different types of filters? It was honestly hard to tell at this point.

Shiro went over to search for the second black bow while placing back the assortments she originally brought out. After locating it, she gave one of them for Archer to hold while she tried to use the other bow to hide the cat ear.

She had to say that it was certainly hard for her to deal with someone casually touching it as such, but Shiro looked so happy that Archer couldn't say a single word.

When both bows were finished being tied, it was almost difficult to see that she had cat ears to begin with, even from behind. The only issue that was left had been the tail which had been greatly passing her short skirt, but Kurogane still didn't have an idea as to hiding it.

Well, he wasn't focused on solving that problem during the duration of their visit here.

He was much too distracted basking in the smiles of Archer, but now that easy solution out of the way, Kurogane had to think a little ways out of the box.

"That tail is giving us problems…"

"My tail? I could just curl that up into my skirt if needed."

"You can do that!?"

Archer felt a bit more open about the tail being a part of her once Kurogane threw out the curse explanation.

"I have full control of it if I think about it every moment. It simply dangles and hangs as itself from my own subconsciousness."

"That's so cool!" Shiro exclaimed, stars relit. "This curse actually seems so cool. I wanna have this curse!"

"No, you don't," Archer immediately answered. "It's not something that you should be happy about. A curse means that you did something bad in order to receive it and I don't want you doing anything bad for this. It looks nice and might be cool, but it's a bit inconvenient when it comes down to it."

"Huh? You did something bad?"

Archer held her tongue and her eyes hung down. Kurogane felt like they accidentally crossed into an uncomfortable topic for her and he wanted to end it immediately. This was no time for anyone to feel sad from anything. He stood up from the chair and clapped, trying to pull away from it.

"Enough of that. Whatever Archer did in the past, it doesn't really matter now, right?" he said, smiling. "Let's worry about getting clothes for her. I'm sure mom is finished up and waiting for us right now."

"O-Oh, right!" Shiro grabbed Archer's hands, almost in a sparkling nature. "Let's go, Big Sis! I want to see you in more nice clothes!"

"Yes, I'm coming, Shiro."

Archer replied kindheartedly as she stood back up from the sister's assistance. Shiro happily walked out holding Archer's hand as Kurogane closed the door behind them and followed behind. His mother was already out downstairs, suggested to Kurogane by Archer's keen senses.

They headed down and got on their shoes, heading out to downtown by their car.

/

The city was bustling with people, regardless of where they turned. From friends who were hanging out or employees trying to get to their workplace on time, there was something for someone to do here at all hours of the day. With tall buildings and stores entrapping them to the roads, they found a parking spot and left to the closest clothing store.

Apparently, his mother knew someone that would be more than willing to help pick out clothing. That alone was rather unnerving to Kurogane because that implied that they were going to buy more than one set of outfits for Archer, but he decided to not say anything yet, given she didn't even have a single idea of what's to come.

The department store opened up to a somewhat crowded environment. It wasn't enough for anyone to be claustrophobic by any means, but there was still a good amount for Archer to be taken back a bit.

They went up the clothing section as his mother asked one of the employees to get her friend out to assist them. It took a few moments, but a woman, a bit younger than his mother reached out with a happy smile.

"Akeno!" the woman called out. "It's nice to see you again! It's been a while, hasn't it?"

"It truly has, Harumi!" The older woman hugged for a bit before breaking off from each other. "I've been busy with my job and helping with my husband's cafe that I haven't had the chance to go shopping in some time, so you'll have to forgive me for not visiting you more often!"

"You shouldn't worry about such things. We all have lives outside each other, so it's not like I don't understand."

"Ah, you're far too kind, Harumi."

"Oh, and are these your children?" Harumi had glanced over to Kurogane and Shiro. "Ah, they've grown so much since the last time I saw them!"

"Good morning, Miss."

"Hello, Miss."

The two children greeted the woman with a quick bow before the woman shifted gears and noticed that there was one unfamiliar face to the family. Putting assumptions immediately together, she clapped her hands and gasped.

"Did your son finally find a girlfriend!?"

"Not yet, but I'm hoping it's going to be a work in progress!"

Okay, so she openly admitted in front of Archer that she wanted Kurogane and her to get together. He checked on Archer's reaction, but it was like she didn't even bother to listen in their gossip in the first place. She was already looking around for clothing that matched the description of his father's stated uniform details.

She wandered off when she found a simple white shirt and somewhat baggy black pants that technically fit the requirement, as his mother and the employee were still in conversation. Shiro followed them to see what they were up to.

"This will be suitable. It's cost-effective and doesn't get in the way if I have to take evasive maneuvers."

"_Eva_… sive… _More_… ner?" Shiro tried sounding out the word, but still didn't understand it.

"It's nothing that you have to worry about, Shiro," she replied. "Your brother knows what I need, so I believe this would be satisfactory."

Turning to Kurogane, she was relatively surprised to see him shaking his head.

"No, that's too bland."

"Excuse me?"

"We have to find something much better for you."

"No, this is already good enough."

Kurogane narrowed his eyes and then pointed up the large directory sign above them. "Also, you just picked them out from the male's department." He then pointed over to the adjacent sign off a few meters away. "I'd rather we buy something from the female's department for you instead."

"Ah, I see." Archer placed back the lackluster combination. "Then I suppose this would draw attention."

"I wanna see Big Sis in nice clothes!" Shiro suddenly exclaimed.

It took Archer by surprise, but she tried to carefully push down the idea. "N-No, I'm sure your mother is already busy as it is. We should try and find something that will serve as my cafe uniform."

"Aw, but I remember that this store has some really nice outfits!"

Kurogane silently agreed with Shiro's stance. He _too_ wanted to see Archer in a vast array of clothing styles and proceed to rate them all ten out of tens, but seeing that she was uncomfortable about the whole thing, he didn't want to push it onto her.

"Yeah, let's think about mom, alright? She still has to go to work later in the afternoon for a short shift at the hospital, so I don't want her to get tired out beforehand."

"Is that true?"

"I think so." He turned around, hearing his mother's footsteps alongside the employee. "I'm sure mom can confirm—"

He didn't know what he expected when he looked over to his mom, yet suddenly, she had accumulated about five different outfits for Archer to try out between her hands and the employee's. The curious part had been that they _all_ fit the description of what his father intended, but it looked like it didn't matter if Archer already had something in mind.

His mother's face had been in the same light as his sister's.

Archer wasn't escaping.

Because there was _certainly_ more on the way.

"I've been told what the situation is," the employee said. "I'll sort out all of the black and white outfits that are fitting to wear as uniforms at the cafe! Just worry about having your friend get in and out of the different clothes!"

Kurogane started to sweat. "But… what about your work shift, mom?"

"I called in sick before we left~! We'll have all day if we need it in order to check out what Archer looks the best in!"

He looked over to Archer who couldn't say a single word. She was forced to gracefully resign her body to the temptation of a mother's love and a child's desires, being the only option left for her. Her shoulders slumped over while her mouth was wryly turning upwards, yet she couldn't couldn't remember to blink.

This was probably the first time he saw Archer having such a distressed and conflicted expression.

If it hadn't been cute and adorable, Kurogane would have felt bad for her.

/

_Exhibit One!_

In the midst of the changing, one of the outfits had caught the main spotlight.

It was a frilly dress of black with some of the accessoring fabric being laced in white. It honestly looked more like an evening gown, but the material used suggested that it was fine for outdoor recreational appearances and especially workplaces. It was perplexing that such a dress could be so flexible, but Archer claimed that it was difficult to move around.

Kurogane remembered to snap a photo before she changed.

_Exhibit Two!_

The next outfit that his mother personally found was appealing to the family.

This had been much more trendier, reminding Kurogane of the wardrobe that his friend, Haruka, would wear. The light sweater had hugged itself against her chest while the pants had been sleek to the eyes. It was a dangerous combination when paired with the present ribbons on her head, but she didn't like feeling restrictive. She was gesturing to the tail that was tucked down her legs where it was obviously that something was there, but she tried to hide that side from his mother.

Kurogane quickly took a picture of her before she changed.

_Exhibit Three!_

This one didn't exactly fit what they needed one hundred percent, but it looked natural enough that Shrio and his mother urged her to try it out.

It was a simple white shirt that went over a navy blue frill skirt and apparently, it looked much nicer with a green jacket with a dark green hood portion that wasn't part of the original combination. It was one of the preferred ones that Archer liked, being reasonable enough that it was much easier to wear this compared to his usual outfit.

This didn't fit the requirement, but this was on the side table for them to buy afterwards.

Kurogane _still_ saved that image of her spinning around in front of the mirror in that clothing.

After countless more, Archer looked like she was getting tired, but his mother and sister weren't out of energy yet. They loved dressing up the new household member, trying to even suggest specific poses for her to do as she unwillingly showed herself off to them.

As much as Kurogane's photo library had adored getting filled up with pictures of Archer, he didn't want to push her anymore, but they still haven't found a usable uniform for her.

That was when the employee came up with the special course of exhibit four.

It was practically a maid outfit describing the needed uniform colours, down to the small frills of the apron. Not only was it comfortable for Archer to move in, it perfectly hid her tail with its long skirt that went to her ankles, so she didn't have to constantly remember, by Kurogane's nudging or her self-realization, to pull it back up.

"I think this is perfect and it's not too casual that she would be mistaken as a customer. Having an orthodox maid uniform is the staple of some gimmick cafes, not that we're one of them."

"I do not have any problems with this one. Now, may we _please_ stop this madness and leave with _something_?" Archer's desperation and underestimation of the dangerous female duo was starting to surface from her usually calm demeanour.

The employee glanced over to some clothing that she brought over, but hasn't been touched yet. It looked like they were specifically sectioned off, despite being requested by the mother.

She lifted up one of them towards her with Shiro being distracted by Archer's new outfit.

"You haven't given her these to try yet, Akeno?"

"Ah, I wanted to, but my mouth was heading places where my head hasn't reached yet. There's no way I could possibly allow a modest girl like her to wear such things in front of Shiro. She's far too young to understand such complexities."

"Yet your son's presence is fine?"

"Of course." A glint sparked from the corner of her smiling eyes. "_Especially _so."

Kurogane glanced over to check what these articles the adults were talking about and he was shocked to see sexy lingeries and revealing underwear, all probably at Archer's three sizes. Just thinking about seeing Archer in such provocative clothing had been too much for him to handle and his face turned red.

His mother noticed and leaned in close to his ear.

"Don't worry, we'll find some day to put Archer in those for you to have no need to imagine such things. I know that you're a growing boy with your own curiosities."

Kurogane couldn't tell if she had the smirk of an angel or a devil. Perhaps both.

"_T-That's not what I…_"

Luckily, the girl in question was too busy with his sister and she turned around after the employee had already put away the lingerie, but Kurogane was left wondering what type of clothing department store had such options to begin with. Seeing her Master in such a state, she wasn't sure that she even _wanted_ to know what happened.

Archer changed back into her normal clothing, in which she could apparently overlay on her current outfit immediately at a moment's notice, and his mother brought the clothes over to the register. There were a few more casual outfits that they picked up for her, letting Kurogane's wallet feel the severe impact. Though, his mother was in such a good mood that she was the one that ended up buying everything for them, letting his money survive another day.

Kurogane stopped counting time after the second hour spent there as the sun was above them in the midday skies to let him know that _enough_ time passed. He held the clothing by himself to the car, even though Archer said she could do it, but his mother pulled them over as they were about to leave the department store.

There were a few fast food chains that were standing between them and the exit, causing Shiro's stomach to growl with a soft voice.

"Mommy, I'm hungry," she said. "Can we get some burgers?"

"I don't see why not. Kurogane, could you go find a seat somewhere in the food court?" his mother asked. "I'll go buy some food for everyone. Archer, do you have any preferences?"

"A hamburger, huh?" Archer rubbed her chin. "I'm not particularly decisive when it comes to meal selection, but I do rather want some grounded meat."

"Not a problem! I know just the thing for you!"

"I want the kid's meal with that new toy that came out!"

"Yeah, I'll take my usual burger choice too. No need to make it a combo. I'm not that hungry."

"Okay, I got it!" She tried to youthfully pump up an arm with an added wink. "Burgers, coming right up!"

His mother split up from the group and wandered off to the line-up as they were left with the task of finding an empty table for them to sit on, preferably somewhere nearby for his mother to quickly find them. There was a booth that was conveniently empty and pointing it out, Shiro was the first one to run over, stealing the inside seat happily.

Kurogane set down the bags to the side and sat down with Archer, across from each other as Shiro leaned her head onto her shoulder. His sister looked like she discovered the wonder that was Archer and couldn't stop her addiction for the new big sister, causing the other two to chuckle a bit.

"I didn't know kids liked you so easily."

"I am rather positive that this is something exclusive to your little sister, Ma—I-I mean, Kurogane."

They made the deliberate decision to keep their relationship a secret, not being as suggestive as it sounded. Archer knew that if they wanted to keep the Holy Grail War a secret, the first step was to avoid using any Master-Servant terms and that meant Archer needed to use his name.

It was an empty win for him.

He got to hear what she sounded like when she said his name, but it hurt, knowing that it was because of another reason than that she wanted to use his name for the sake of using it. She still called him Master when they were alone.

Archer did look over to Shiro, almost longingly.

"But it is true that I like children. They all deserve love and happiness in their lives. I always wanted to bring that to them."

"Is that… your wish?"

Archer nodded, knowing Kurogane was being vague on purpose. "It is indeed. I cannot forgive people who would hurt children in any reason or capacity and I simply want them to find salvation in their lives, not to be led astray by suffering and despair."

"That's a beautiful wish."

Archer flinched, hearing her Master's opinion on it, but there weren't any negative emotions or mockery added to it underlayer. Not that she ever expected it from Kurogane, being someone that couldn't have suited the role of a villain.

"But it's something that you didn't come up with all of a sudden. Am I right?"

Archer was a bit surprised that Kurogane was able to deduce such a thing upon the mere context of her chase for the Holy Grail War's victory. She made a deep sigh, rolling her eyes back down to Shiro, but before she could say anything, Kurogane held his hand out to stop her.

"It's fine. You don't need to explain yourself. I already have a few guesses, but…" Kurogane closed his eyes, almost with his smile breaking from his frown. "There's no need for them to be confirmed now."

"You're right."

Kurogane and Archer heard footsteps approaching them and they figured it was his mother that was coming around the corner. Kurogane himself thought it took a little too quickly for the orders to be made and given out, considering the somewhat decent line-up that his mother was in.

He wasn't sure why, but he glanced over to the line-up first, only to notice that his mother _was still_ there, waiting for their food. A shadow towered over their table as a deep voice reached out to him specifically.

Kurogane turned and gulped to see that a man, accurately described as a priest, had been standing at the end of their table. He did have a pleasant expression, but every cell in his Kurogane's body was screaming out loud, just like the notion he received when the black-suited man first entered the cafe. It was like there was a mask, preventing him from seeing the real priest underneath.

"Are you Kurogane Yoshida?"

Seeing her Master stiffened, Archer knew that she needed to do something, but they were all in public. There wasn't much that she could have done except hold back the issue and be on standby, just in case that the priest was going to do something to him.

Shiro, on the other hand, didn't understand what was happening, bouncing her head back and forth between everyone.

"W-What if I am…?" Kurogane stammered.

Seeing the cross on his neck with intrinsic details, the priest reached into his coat and pulled out some type of business card. On it, there was an address listed that Kurogane didn't recognize and it was placed right in front of him.

"_If you need any assistance or support, _please reach out and I shall provide whatever is in my jurisdiction."

"Who are you?" Archer firmly said, almost growling as she stood up. Her gut was telling her that this man was bad news. "What are you trying to pull here?"

"_Rejoice_. _Rejoice_. _Rejoice_."

The priest started to walk away all too sudden.

"For the _Holy Grail_ has chosen you to be the _third_ candidate of this war. Though the conditions might cause the preparations to take _longer than expected_, do not believe that you do not need to prepare. I wish you two the _best_ of luck."

Archer and Kurogane gasped. The Master leapt out from the table and watched the priest as he walked away, exiting the front entrance of the department store in a quiet fashion. Sweat was dripping down his head as his head pounded nervously and his chest felt too tight.

He glanced over to the business card, seeing that the focal name had resemblance to a Catholic Church.

Grabbing it, he flipped it back and forth to see if there was anything else worth mentioning, but it was a simple card without any tricks to it. He didn't know what to make of it and looking at Archer, she wasn't expecting such an event either.

"Is something wrong, you two?"

Hearing his mother's voice, he quickly stuffed the card back into his pocket and turned around, acting all flustered. "A-Ah, no! Nothing's wrong! I just, uhm, needed some standing! My leg started feeling a bit weird, but it's much better now!"

With a wryly laugh, his mother didn't pay anymore attention to it as she sat herself down and started distributing the food to them. Being part of the usual fast food chains that he went to with his friends as well, this quarter-pounder burger was something he always liked and he knew that Archer would find some enjoyment out of its taste, seeing that she bought the same thing.

However, all that he could indulge on was the sudden anxiety that brushed right past them.

Archer hadn't been all too different, unable to enjoy the meal with her mind racing as to who that man could be and more importantly, what he meant by his words.


	4. Chapter 4 : Holy Intervention

**Chapter 4 / Holy Intervention**

* * *

The pouring water from the bathroom sink had been warm on his hands, cupping the contents as it overfilled itself over its short barrier and tiny gaps. He didn't know how long he spent in here, simply standing in front of the semi-fogged mirror after his evening shower, but he did know that there was something on his mind.

The priest, the one that approached them early today, was the center of his attention ever since he came home. It wasn't anything he could explain with his words, but he knew that he needed to confront it soon.

Archer told him that it was better off ignoring what happened, but even he could tell that she was curious about the interaction. If someone was as focused and stern as Archer couldn't move past it, there was no way that he could consider the idea for himself in the first place.

He didn't even manage to grab himself a glove at the department store, despite saying he would. Honestly, the distraction that was Archer's outfit changes was enough to make him forget that was even the prior objective.

It would have been likely that he would have remembered as he was eating, if it weren't for the sudden and brief meeting.

After bringing up the water to splash his face, he started to brush his teeth. His eyes glanced over to the counter where he placed the pocketed business card with the address of the church.

He could only assume it was an invite to meet him at that location and considering it wasn't too far away, the idea looked tempting. Archer was opposing the idea, believing it might have been some type of trap, but from the way he spoke and what little information they were blatantly given, as if it was an introductory gift, Kurogane had reason to believe that the priest was the overseer of the Holy Grail War.

He managed to convince Archer that they should give it a shot, especially when Kurogane still had questions swirling in his mind. After waiting for his sister and his mother to go to their rooms, they were planning on quickly heading out in order to meet the priest and return before his father could close the cafe down for the day.

Upon his hand, he already torn off the bandages, revealing his Command Seals, believing that they would be able to quickly jump over to a nearby clothing store if all goes well. He knew a thrift store in the area that didn't close until a few hours from now and that was plenty of time.

Though, Akio might have some of his old ones. He remembered that they were all decent-looking , after all. Pulling up his phone from the counter, he decided to ring him up quickly.

"Gloves? You need gloves?" Akio asked on the other side after the request. "Why the heck do you need my old gloves for?"

"Well, typically… people get gloves to wear them, right?" Kurogane chuckled, trying to play coy and playful to cover up his inability to answer truthfully.

"Okay, smartass," Akio laughed in response. "Anyways, I can't help you out there. I donate all my used clothing to charity, including my gloves. It's not like I just keep them around or anything."

"Didn't you still fit in those though?"

"Yeah, but I never actually wear the thing enough to warrant keeping it." Akio hummed, as Kurogane imagined him rubbing his chin. "You know, I could Riku and Haruka if they have any gloves. Though, I think Riku's hands are a bit smaller than yours. Haruka would be the best bet, probably be able to lock a reasonable one down for you if you're looking for style."

"I'll keep them in mind. I want to check out the thrift store first."

"Alright, your call. By the way, Kuro?"

"Yeah? What's up?"

"Nice to actually hear your voice after we abandoned you in the forest. It wasn't anything intentional, but the night was falling and we went to spend some time looking for you for a while."

Kurogane shrugged. "Eh. It wasn't anything too bad. I didn't mind it that much."

"So we can leave you in the forest alone again?"

"No. Please don't."

Akio's laugh echoed through the call. "Alright, well, good night then. Hopefully, I'll see your face unbruised tomorrow or else I'll start to feel even worse."

"See ya."

After finishing the call, he closed the washroom lights and came back into his room where Archer was waiting.

She put on the green jacket outfit that was bought today, believing that it was better suited for this generation. It was slightly contrasted to the striped shirt he was planning on wearing on their night out, but as he stared at her, he started to become a bit self-conscious.

"Maybe it was a bad idea to take shower before heading out at night. Might end up with some sweat again," Kurogane sighed, combing his slightly wet hair with his fingers. "Though, that's the easiest way to get my thoughts in order. Water on the head always helps when I'm stuck on a problem."

"Are you worried about getting messy tonight? Expecting the meeting to end up as a trap?" Archer asked.

"I still don't think that's the case, Archer."

"You're foolish not to even consider the risk."

"If it does go bad, you'll bail me out, right?" Kurogane smirked.

"It depends if it's even worth bailing you out. That man has knowledge on how the Holy Grail War works better than you; that is for certain." Archer rolled her wrist, sighing. "Why do you even want to meet this man? You already know our requirement for victory. As long as we don't stray from the target, we won't need to be sidetracked by things like this."

Glancing his Command Seals, he held silent for a moment.

"There are some things I need for them to be cleared up."

"After my explanation, you still need clarity?"

"I feel like I need to know a bit more in order to properly serve as your Master and I want to give you my best, after all. Master or not, he sounds like he knows more about the Holy Grail and its minute details." With a weak smile, Kurogane brought up his hand and clenched it in a fist. "Besides, there really is something I think you can't answer."

"Something that I cannot answer? Interesting."

"Come on," Kurogane beckoned. He grabbed his keys from the desk and started twirling them around his finger, closing the motion with a firm grasp. "Let's head out."

"Of course."

They made their way downstairs and took the back exit.

There were still a surplus of customers dining out in the front, so it felt a bit rude to intrude on them for Kurogane. Nevertheless, he shouted out to his father that he'll be out for about an hour before leaving the house, in which Archer raised an eyebrow towards it. She assumed the entire point of leaving in the evening was to not attract any suspicion, but to her surprise, his father merely told him to take care and left it at that.

There was the sectioned off portion of the parking lot that was treated almost like a makeshift garage. The car his mother drove was parked at the front alongside a van. At the backside, an electric scooter was pulled out by Kurogane and he passed a helmet over to Archer.

"This one's yours. I always keep an extra one, just in case."

"I don't believe it's necessary. My head does not need protection and if it did, something weak as that won't be able to defend against the possible—"

"Not against a Servant," Kurogane groaned, lowering his arm briefly out of defeat. "I'm pretty sure it's a by-law for the driver and the passenger to be needing helmets, even on electric scooters."

"Even so, I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with covering up my ears." They both twitched slightly on her head, as if to prove some point. "I'm afraid it might block out some of my hearing if so, making my reactions slightly slower if something does happen."

"I guess that's a valid point there…"

Holding back the offering, he didn't want to be forcing Archer to wear it anymore. I figured that it was equivalent to pushing back his own ears to be closed and that in itself would be difficult to deal with, especially if he's the one driving.

He could only imagine how uncomfortable it might have been, but when he thought about pushing down those ears, Kuko came to his mind. Shiro and him would always stroke the cat's head, occasionally pushing down his ears, though never for a long duration of time.

Suddenly, Kurogane started to think about patting Archer's head and he amazingly managed to kick himself in a fluster through the mental experience.

Now that he thought about it, Archer's hair did seem like it was a bit rough, but smooth at the same time. It was an odd contradiction that he really wanted to solve the mystery to, ideally through experimentation, but Archer's unexpected words snapped him out of it.

"If it becomes a problem, I can follow you on foot."

"Heh? Come again?"

He knew the electric scooter was somewhat slower, but she said such a thing with confidence.

"I'll go from rooftop to rooftop, keeping you in my detection and following you at the same time," she explained fully. "It's not an issue for me to do such a thing. With given strength, my footwork is exceptional."

Kurogane immediately taught himself to stop being surprised at the possible feats that these heroic servants can do. He could guess that they would be able to cross the city in no time, but in that case, it technically would have been quicker for Archer to carry him there…

No, he couldn't commit to something so embarrassing!

"A-Ah, but what if someone sees you?" he stammered, popping out of his delusion.

"I highly doubt any normal person would spot me. With the dusk of night settling in, it would be difficult to be certain that there was someone on the rooftops. Unless that person was another Master or a Servant…" Archer retreated herself, realizing what he brought up.

"That comes with its own set of problems…" Kurogane said, stating the obvious.

"Clearly, but I'll be able to act more quickly if I'm not locked onto a seat and a helmet."

If that ever did cross a Master and Servant on the way over there, it wouldn't be too unlikely for Archer to immediately jump off to engage in a fight if she did sit on the backseat. That would have been dangerous on his end too, given a possible burst of directional momentum and resulting opposite force.

"Are you sure though?" Kurogane asked once more, tying his helmet while putting away the second one. "I'm just trying to look out for you or… Maybe you should take things easy for now?"

"Do you doubt that I can keep up?"

"I-It's not that, but…"

"If your bike is anything like the speed of most vehicles we've seen today, I can certainly keep up and I could certainly surpass it. I was known as one of the faster runners back in my prime, if not then the fastest one. I've only lost one race and that was due to..."

Her silence ended up from his drifting words as a solemn glance emerged from her face.

"Well, no. I do trust you on that amazing feat of yours," Kurogane said, trying to steer the conversation away. "I just don't want you to be pushing yourself and all."

"Something like this is nothing worth putting effort into," she calmly said, crossing her arms.

"Then that's pretty cool of you," Kurogane complimented, walking the scooter out to the parking lot.

He sat down on the seat and ignited the engine with the keys. It made a small roar, as if it was excited that its owner finally allowed it to see the skies once again. Kurogane didn't have a use for it most of the time, but it was incredibly useful when it was needed.

He glanced over to Archer, only for him to be surprised to see that she was already on top of the cafe's roof. There hadn't been any sound to indicate such an action, but it did alleviate some of the weariness he had towards her and her abilities.

With a throttle at the handle, he started driving into the street and down towards the direction of the church. Every now and again, when he was stuck at a traffic light, he would always check upwards to see Archer keeping herself within range.

With the shimmering breeze blowing past him, he drove his way over to the address on the business card.

/

The church was positioned up a hill on the outskirts of the town, only blocked by the unnatural traffic jams in between him and the destination. Many detours had to be taken, but it wasn't anything he could control. That side, it was still further out than he thought it was since the address was up the spiraling road, but to his surprise, it was within a reasonable distance from Haruka's manor. He might simply stop by his house, just to ask about the glove quickly.

The motorbike was trudging on at a slower speed with his intention, carefully heading up, so that Archer could freely walk by his side. There hadn't been any buildings that she could navigate easily on, so this was the most natural course of action for him.

He offered to lend her the backseat during the ride up, but she refused.

That was slightly dispiriting.

Open gates were held up once they arrived at the top, as if it was welcoming the new visitors into the holy ground. Kurogane drove the scooter over to a small parking lot and stopped it in the first spot he saw. Archer walked up, scanning the surroundings for any potential dangers in the meanwhile.

"It doesn't appear to be any Servants hiding around."

"So it's not a trap," Kurogane concluded, getting off the scooter and unequipping his helmet.

Archer shook her head. "That doesn't mean there is nothing to fear. Some Servants may have the ability to hide their presence as well as some Masters, if they're knowledgeable in it."

"It's not as simple as expected, huh," he sighed. "Well, we won't be getting any answers if we stand around here. Let's just head in, Archer."

With a reluctant silence, Kurogane started walking down the pathway toward the church's main building.

Underneath the somewhat darkened skies, the stroll was surprisingly pleasant. He could easily see the trees being shade for the rising sunlight and the flowers being bright among the shining luminosity. Even the hedges that acted as small barriers for the straight pathway were nice to see, being tended to so that they were straight in their shape.

The building itself was nothing to ignore either.

Layered with white bricks to mold a great cathedral, it felt a bit bigger than he expected. There were statues of people, those he presumed to be those of worship, close to the entrance and they walked past to open the door.

It wasn't locked and Kurogane pushed it open to see that the lights were still on. Suspicious of the surroundings, Archer transformed her clothing back to her defaulted outfit since there weren't any pedestrians around. It was worthwhile to demonstrate that they were ready to engage in a fight to the potential enemy if this was a trap.

Walking in, there were arrays of pews positioned in rows with stained glass murals surrounding the ends. Both led upwards towards the altar where there were a few lit candles, flickering hesitantly as a familiar man was kneeling at the steps.

It took a few steps until the man made the sign of the cross and stood up from his place, turning around to face the expected pair. He made a welcoming smirk which was somewhat unwelcoming at the same time.

A somewhat dark expression was foretold in the eyes.

"I appreciate your arrival, Kurogane Yoshida." The priest gestured at the closest pews to them. "Please, have a seat if you wish. I'm sure you may have questions about the Holy Grail War and I would be delighted to answer as much as I am permitted to."

Kurogane was about to take him up on the offer, but Archer held her hand out to prevent him from getting too casual. He understood the intention and stayed standing, but he approached the middle of the Church to be a bit closer to the conversation. Archer said nothing, silently stalking in his shadow.

"I guess the highest priority question should be your identity," Kurogane started off. "Looks like you already know me, but I don't know anything about you."

"Then you must forgive me. Proper introductions are supposed to be in order."

The priest held a hand to his chest, almost holding his worned cross, and made a slight bow, shuffling the dark coat and his black priest clothes underneath.

"Welcome to the Holy Grail War. My name is Kirei Kotomine."

"Kirei… Kotomine…?"

Kurogane repeated the ominous-sounding name for himself, only to figure out that it was all in his apparent tone. Somebody about the priest giving his name to him sent a shiver on his spine, almost as if the man was giving a warning to not get close to him.

"It might be better for you to know that I am the overseer of this Holy Grail War."

Kurogane widened his eyes at the revelation and suddenly felt a rush of relief surging through his veins. He shook off the dreaded feeling, ignoring the odd pretense, and let out a breath of fresh air. His lungs didn't feel the same tension as before, but that might have been a mentality thing.

He was even about to take up on the former offer and went to a seat, but Archer stopped him once more, silently scowling at him, as if she couldn't believe what Kurogane was thinking right now. He tried to quickly recompose himself back to where he was initially.

Scratching his head, he gave a gentle smile. "I was a bit worried that you were another Master for a second there with your introduction."

"And you thought to walk into another Master's domain, if I were one, would have been a good idea?"

"I told the same thing to my Master as well," Archer sighed, shaking her head. "Though, allow me to be blunt, Overseer. I don't particularly trust you as of yet."

"I was never intending to ask for such a thing. Only an inexperienced person would have trusted another stranger, so I'll only ask you to hear out my words. You needn't not to take it as truth either."

Kurogane felt like he was being made fun of by the priest already, but he tried to wryly laugh it off in a rather awkward mannerism. He thought that revealing oneself as the overseer might have meant he was going to get easy answers rather than trying to fly with mental gymnastics. No one else was laughing, so his voice simply trailed off into the ambience.

Being the outsider to this topic was more difficult than he expected. He tried to come up with something to move the conversation along, but the priest spoke first.

"Kurogane Yoshida. Do you intend to fight in the Holy Grail War?"

He staggered a bit from the sudden question, but after a gulp, he managed to calm himself down in order to answer in a similar serious tone. His recovery was much quicker than Archer expected as well.

"Yeah, I'm going to fight. Is there a problem with that?"

"None at all," Kirei answered. "Though, as the outsider selected by the Holy Grail War, you have the right to know that this will not be any easy task. Your life will be on the line under multiple situations and circumstances."

He could only have presumed so with the nature of a war. With other Masters all aiming for the same result, there's bound to be some people that wouldn't hesitate to take the easy method in defeating a Servant by killing Master, as Archer told him before. That wasn't even considering that the opponents might have been preparing themselves for the war already or perhaps, they were even expecting themselves to be selected.

"Do you believe you could stand on your enemies' level? You can only be so dependent on your Servant taking the reins for so long before the competence of the other Masters catches up to you."

Kirei started to walk up to him, but stopped a few meters away to be within Archer's range of comfortability, who took a small step forwards as a sign of a warning to him. Meanwhile, Kurogane was too distracted by possible consequences of his relatively premature decision.

"You'll require more than luck in order to find victory, but perhaps that is why the Holy Grail decided to select you." Kurogane glanced upwards from the ground at him. "That does mean you will win, but chances of victory is nonzero. However, the chances of dying are nonzero as well and perhaps greater than victory."

Kurogane held his hand over his Command Seals instinctively, seriously thinking about the bigger picture and the future that was standing before his eyes. Archer peered over to her Master, seeing that his promise to her was starting to waver.

To her, that was of no issue.

Her Independent Action ability would allow her to act without a Master for some time, more than enough time to be able to find a better-suited person for the war.

That being said, she wondered why she hadn't simply left Kurogane yet. She already knew that victory was slim if she decided to stay by his side, thinking so as she kept her eyes to the corner to watch him, as if the answer was somewhere there.

"As you might have heard or not, I have the ability to escort you out of the war safely. You will be able to go back to your normal life and leave all of this Holy Grail War behind. The other Masters will no longer have a reason to hunt you down, so you're able to keep your life at no risk. Though, as an outsider, I will have to ensure that the memories of Holy Grail War are erased—"

"Absolutely not."

As if it was shattering glass, Kurogane leapt up from his silence and glared at the priest.

"If I'm going to forget about everything in the Holy Grail War, I'm not leaving. That only reaffirms my stance in fighting in the Holy Grail War"

His voice was a staggering difference from a few seconds ago. He held a firm and concise atmosphere, announcing every word with clarity and conviction. It almost surprised Kirei, making an amused grunt, but nothing else that showed an extra ounce of emotion.

"May I ask why?"

He looked over to his Servant briefly before returning himself to Kirei.

"It's simple. I want Archer's wish to be granted and I…" His hand, bearing the Command Seal, clenched into a fist and pointed it to the priest. "I want to be by her side, supporting her the entire way through!"

"A bit childish, don't you think? Do you not have a wish yourself for the Grail?"

"That is my wish, no matter what you'll say about it."

Archer nodded, seeing the returned flame in her Master's heart, not that it had any chance of dwindling away at the sight of the situation's reality. He might have been inexperienced, but she could say that his intentions were purely fueled by determination.

Though, that determination felt… a bit familiar.

Kirei, on the other hand, stayed silent before a lowly chuckle emerged from his throat.

"I see that there is no method in convincing you to leave from these dangers. Your feet are firmly stuck to the ground and your eyes are shining brightly, even through the darkness up ahead."

Kurogane might have not thought much about it, but Archer raised an eyebrow. She didn't think that the overseers of the Holy Grail Wars were stationed on the position to convince people, stumbling in like her Master, to be safely escorted out from the war. Forfeiting that role had to be something that the person chose for themselves, so it wasn't as if anyone could steal the Command Seals off from him.

She frowned, thinking that there was something more to this than on the surface level.

"I assume that you didn't come here to reaffirm your role in the war, correct?"

"Yeah, I have a few concerns for you about this entire mess of things."

"I will answer as much as I am permitted to. I cannot reveal too much, in light of being a partisan of all participants of the war. That is another reason as to why you should not treat me as an ally."

"That's fine with me," Kurogane smiled, causing Archer to think that he didn't understand what Kirei was trying to imply. "I just need some enlightenment on this. Any size of it would help me greatly."

"Then what could I help you with?"

Kurogane crossed his arms, as if he didn't think he would ever get this far. Nevertheless, he still needed to figure out the words to say properly as the light-hearted atmosphere, one that encapsulated the Master, dampened slightly to fit the mood.

"You said some things back when you gave me the card to catch our attention, but you were decidedly vague on what you said. Rather, I think it was more like it was so unexpected that it wasn't fully registered in my head. Can you expand on that?"

"You said that we were the third candidates," Archer recalled for Kurogane, "and you mentioned that this war would take longer than expected to prepare. Dig deeper into those topics for my Master, please."

"Well, where should I start for you to understand easily?"

Being a rhetorical question, Kirei started to walk through the pews, humming to himself as he reached the other end. He then circled the perimeter as his voice was constantly being projected to Kurogane, all while the pair kept their eyes on him.

"To start, it is what it sounds like. There are two other Masters that have already summoned their Servants in the city. I cannot reveal their identities, but adversely, I will not reveal your own."

"Which classes have been summoned so far?" Archer asked.

Kurogane tilted his head at her. "Classes?"

"Ah, I supposed I haven't explained that part to you yet."

"The Holy Grail War is a particular phenomenon for its summoning ritual," Kirei started explaining instead, pulling their attention back to him. "It allows each Master to summon a spirit, but the heroic spirit must be embodying a certain class. Once one of the classes is summoned, the other rituals cannot summon a spirit in a class belonging to a participating Servant."

Kurogane blinked blanklessly until Archer nudged him to pay more attention to her voice.

"Think about it like this. Because I am from the Archer class, we will not have to worry about there being another Archer class Servant in the war."

"I guess… that clears some things up…" Kurogane mumbled.

"As to the identities of the other Servants, those of Caster and Saber have already taken form. Lancer, Assassin, Rider, and Berserker have not been summoned as of yet."

Hearing all the names being thrown out, it slightly reminded him of some video games where the tutorial asks the player to select a character class, but that was the most grounded connection he could make in order to not let his head wander around pointlessly.

Apparently, just as those games, each class had their own strengths and weaknesses that were attributed once the Servant was summoned since they could be eligible for multiple classes. Kirei went over each class briefly, to not prolong their stay through an extra lesson.

The Archer class was primarily centered for those with projectiles or projectile-like abilities, allowing Servants to be summoned under that class if they meet that condition. Evidently, Archer was summoned with a black bow in her hand, so it was safe to say that she qualified.

He… didn't exactly keep focus for the other classes, except for one.

The Saber class.

The only reason why he managed to remember it was because it sounded the most dangerous, having high ability ratings across all categories. Of course, they were limited by whatever their swordsmanship can reach, but he knew that there was a saying where a good swordsman can close any gap to their opponent.

He feared that this might be the case for whoever they are was and most importantly, Saber was already summoned. It was something he had to keep in mind immediately and he was sure that Archer was on edge upon hearing the current participating Servants. In other words, they could encounter this powerful Servant at any time, perhaps even in the most unexpected of situations.

"So we have to keep an eye out for two other Masters right now? Even when all seven haven't been selected yet?"

"That's especially the case," Archer replied. "With how many opponents are present, dealing with two is better than dealing with six in some people's eyes. I expect the Master of Saber to be making their attempt to wipe out Caster and I before a fourth Master is revealed to the war."

"It is wasted effort if the only result is defeating the Servant, however," Kirei added, as he came to a stop back in front of the altar. "If the Master still has their Command Seals, it is not unlikely that they could try and make their return into the war with a new Servant. It's more reasonable to believe that anyone who makes their attempt now will be aiming for the Master."

Kurogane grimaced at that thought being brought up again. It was like it was being served to him on purpose, warning him of what future was to come his way.

"Then what about the second part?" Kurogane asked. "About the… Holy Grail taking longer than expected to be prepared?"

"That would have usually come in tandem with that explanation, Master. As the third set, it may take some time for the Holy Grail War to find its candidates." Despite the response, Archer bit down on her thumb. "However, there's something awry about this war, isn't there?"

"The Church does not know why this is the case," Kirei responded. "There does appear to be some interference that is slowing down the Holy Grail War's selection due to this location in particular. Systematically, the Church has determined that a new Master will be selected on a monthly basis by the Grail, opposing its usual short timeframe."

"Then yesterday would mark the third month. It'll take at least four more months for the Holy Grail to be able to be available," Archer pondered aloud.

"I'm sorry, I feel like this is bouncing off of me like a brick wall," Kurogane said, weakly raising his arm, "but from what little understanding I have, this means we can't rush things because victory isn't even possible until all seven are summoned?"

"That's correct," Kirei responded. "You are doing well to try and keep up."

Kurogane answered with a nervous scratch and a blush from the praise. "Ahaha… I-I guess I am starting to get a better gist of things here…"

"Is that all you needed to know, Master?" Archer took a step back, gesturing to him to leave soon. It seemed like she still didn't trust the priest much. "You received your clarity and managed to understand a bit more of the Holy Grail War."

"No. Not yet."

Kurogane's voice shifted dramatically once again, snapping from the free-spirited to serious intent.

"Father Kotomine. Can you answer me one more question?"

"What do you wish to know?"

"What happened in the past Holy Grail Wars?"

Archer raised her eyebrows at the sudden inquiry. Not to be offensive, but she didn't think her Master had the capability to think outside the spectrum of their own battle. Though, she had to wonder what the point of asking such a thing was.

"Are you curious as to how these wars have flown underneath the radar?"

"No, I expect that they've been able to be well hidden. However, there's something that's been bothering me since, well, yesterday when I learned about what someone would get as their prize."

"And what would that be?"

"The unlimited-potential wish," Kurogane laid out firmly. "It has the power to change the world as we see it and yet, I haven't seen any evidence that suggests such a thing was used to its expected extent. To a point where even those who hide it away can't cover it forever."

Kurogane thought back to Archer's wish of having every child in the world be given love and happiness into their lives. A desire like that would have changed the world and if he could extrapolate that all the other Servants had wishes on some similar level, society would have noticed something off.

It wasn't as if he didn't trust Archer's words.

He felt like she was telling the truth.

But rather, her truth that she knew.

As Kurogane held his breath, Kirei closed his eyes and turned to face the altar with his hands being held behind his back.

"All I'm permitted to say is that there have been other wars such as this one. We are not allowed to distribute specific information about the past wars, other than the fact that they have indeed existed. It may have been sixty years since the last one. It may have been only ten years. This may be the fifth iteration of the war or perhaps it could have been the fiftieth."

"But there has been a past war."

"Correct."

Kurogane gulped, feeling some type of uneasiness once he connected the two pieces. Unfortunately, there was a larger scaled puzzle awaiting to be crafted together and to be honest, he was never any good at solving them. Trying to wrap his head round what may have happened, he decided it wasn't worth it, just yet.

He knew he shouldn't try to cross the finish line if he hasn't even started running yet.

Letting out a deep sigh, Archer saw that he released the somewhat tense atmosphere around him and returned back to his usual self.

"Ah, well… That's probably all I need to know for now!" he said, grinning. "If I need anything else, I'll come by and ask for more help."

"I'm always available here and so is the Church," Kirei responded amusingly.

"Then let us return to—"

"I almost forgot."

Kirei started walking over to the pair as Kurogane was turning around. The boy pivoted back to the priest on his toes and tilted his head, seeing that Kirei was reaching for something in his pocket. Archer kept a keen sense, in the off chance that it was an attack.

However, he pulled out a glove.

"You might need this to hide your Command Seals."

Kurogane's eyes lit up as he took it into his possession. He hesitated a bit, but it was primarily due to the fact it was free, not that he was suspicious of the gift.

He slid it onto his hand, being a perfect fit onto him, and he started to grin.

"We were just looking for one! This is perfect!" he exclaimed. He turned around and showed Archer. "Hey, hey! Look at this, Archer! Doesn't it look so nice? I think it fits with most of my wardrobe too!"

"It's definitely something."

The glove itself wasn't too bad. It was black leather that gripped onto his hand somewhat tightly, but gave enough space to feel free. Like the other set, this was fingerless as well, but Archer hadn't been grimacing from the material.

When she saw the pattern embroidered where the Command Seals would be, she furrowed her brows.

Layered on its surface, there was a golden picture with a winged ram. It was drawn in a tattoo like design, but it was obvious what it was trying to image.

"I hope you are happy with that gift," Kirei said. "It was passed on by a visitor that didn't have the need for it."

Archer narrowed her eyes. "Was that so…?"

"Now we don't have to waste more time, looking for a glove!" Kurogane wore the second pairing glove to match the first hand. "Coming here before the store was a great idea!"

"I had suspicions before, but now I have certainty."

Archer's sudden declaration echoed through the room.

"Someone told you about the involvement of my Master in the Holy Grail War. I know that the Overseer will end up discovering who the Master is through prolonged time periods, but I was suspicious that your gained knowledge of my Master was far too quick. Am I correct?"

Furthermore, she had reason to believe that the person that informed the priest was the same person who provided the glove. That emblem on the glove was like a type of message to her, surely. There was no reason to believe that it was a coincidence, given the circumstances.

A gap opened from the conversation as Kurogane glanced back and forth between the silent glares of both Kirei and Archer towards each other. He wasn't sure what to think about it, feeling left out. Though, from the tension felt from the air alone, perhaps it was best that he didn't understand the severity of it.

"I'm obligated to not comment on your assumptions."

"If I was wrong, you would tell me."

"Not necessarily. Perhaps our knowledge of those who had summoned is better than you might expect."

Archer grunted and returned back to leaving the premises. Giving the priest the knowledge that she was doubting him was more than enough, but he kept up his poker face. If she had to be honest, she couldn't get a good read on the priest, whether or not he was truly dangerous or not, but that in itself was an act of wariness that she should demonstrate more carefully.

Somebody must have been inside the forest that night with them, hiding their presence from her detection. Assassin shouldn't have been summoned yet if the priest wasn't lying, but she decided to take that with a grain of salt. Though, there were still two issues that didn't make sense.

How did they know her identity?

She hadn't spoken her name once, even to her Master. She hadn't been in combat to even have others taking guesses at who she was and there was clearly no way they would have sent the hint without knowing so.

However, there was something more important than that.

How was the person able to know that Kurogane was looking for a glove and more precisely, how did they get the right size at a mere glance? What was even the point for giving him the glove to hide the Command Seals in the first place?

"Is everything alright, Archer?"

"Everything's fine. I didn't get my answer, but it's nothing worth chasing as of now."

Kurogane nodded and innocently smiled at the priest.

"Anyways, thanks for everything, Father Kotomine."

"It is my pleasure, Kurogane Yoshida."

Without another look backwards, Kurogane and Archer walked out of the church. Archer was keeping a close eye on her surroundings once again, in the scenario that somebody was waiting to jump them on the outside, but much to her surprise, they managed to reach the scooter with no incidents.

Revving the vehicle up, Kurogane drove off back down the hill while Archer kept up on her feet.

The priest walked out of the Church to see them depart, but there was only a curious question as to what he was seeing before him. He knew that this outsider of the Holy Grail didn't know much of its rules and limitations, but surely, the Servant knew much more.

So why hasn't she dematerialized into her spiritual form?

… Perhaps it had to do something with the unusual setting Holy Grail? Though, that thought was unlikely, as he already met both Caster and Saber, both of whom were able to disappear into thin air whenever they needed to hide themselves from society.

He felt like the answer lies within her Master.

The Master had no wish.

Kurogane Yoshida had no desire for the Holy Grail for any personal gain.

And yet, why was it that drove him to fight?

It was painfully obvious that her Master took a liking to his Servant. The power of affection was powerful, but it wasn't strong enough to blindly thrust himself into a world of possible death. It _shouldn't _have been. Kurogane Yoshida was a normal person, after all. Any suggestion of losing their own life would cause them to fear and cower.

He is not a magnus. He cannot fight as such. He had all the right to fear and escape the war at the first exit he was given.

However, Kirei did notice something off during his conversation with the boy.

Upon mentioning the possibility of death, it felt like the realization finally sunk into his head that he could die.

When he went on to speak of the results of leaving the war, it felt like _someone else_ took control of his words without him realizing it.

"_How interesting_..."

/

A middle-aged man was standing in the middle of the forest. His clothes blended in with the darkness of the night, paired with a black trench coat. His silver hair, short as it was, was still able to bounce back and forth align with the midnight's gale, but his eyes were fixated onto the scene before him.

He crouched down to check closely.

The skin was pale white.

His mouth showed residues of foam spilling out.

Clearly, the body was dead and he was happy to see that upon his arrival. The poison that he offered in the tea before the black-suited man went off to summon his Servant under the pretense that they would form an alliance worked like a charm.

He planned for them to have a Master be easily eliminated from the Holy Grail War at a snap of a finger. They would have been able to reduce the number of Masters down to six without even making attempts to bypass the guarding Servant.

The location of his body was not intended to be here though. He originally assumed that the man knew something was up, skipped out on the poison from his body and hid himself away from their grasp, but one return back here the next day revealed the truth. He was never expecting this betrayal, but it looked like he spent more time at the summoning ritual than he was calculated to.

Did something delay him? Did he forget something vital to the ritual?

It didn't matter to the middle-aged man. As long as the Servant was summoned and the man died afterwards, he would have been able to achieve this easy victory without lifting a finger.

However, there was one thing that went awry.

"There are no signs of a Command Seal on him?"

Even though the runes showed signs that a summoning ritual has already taken place, this man did not have the Command Seals on his body. They would have, at the very least, showed some fading marks, but that was not the case.

If the black-suited man was not the Master, someone else must have discovered the site and done it in his place. That was out of his expectations, but it would have been nice to see what catalyst this mysterious person might have used. The black-suited man was insistent to keep it a secret from him in order to protect his hypothetical Servant's weakness.

However, that too was gone.

The briefcase. The contents within. Both were taken along the Servant.

Whoever this mysterious Master was, they knew what they were doing.

And whoever completed the summoning ritual knew how to encrypt its remains. Somehow, this was clearly a work of a novice magnus for the evidence would have been entirely removed from the area, but he couldn't figure out what exactly happened here. It was definitely remnants of another Servant entering the fray, but there was something off in this version.

Something he couldn't quite explain.

"Saber. I need your assistance."

From out of thin air, another man formed his shape.

His black clothing was accented with metallic armour pieces, all draped underneath a navy blue cape with his shoulder pieces extending outwards as spikes. With two long daggers on his hips and a shining crystal-colour blade on his back, Saber pushed up his glasses and looked at his Master through the lens, highlighting his cyan eyes.

"I am here, Master. If there's something you need, do not hesitate to ask."

"See if you can gather information on this new Master's whereabouts. I've failed in my calculations and it seems like I'll be forced to have you fight in order to take care of this new Servant as soon as possible." The man started drawing a symbol on the corpse as he spoke, engraving the lines in a dim light. "I'll collect whatever information I can on my side on the spectrum, but I expect some assistance from your end."

When the man stood up, the symbol activated and set the corpse on fire. It kept burning until nothing except the ashes remained. With the wind blowing it away, as if on cue, Saber watched as the same breeze flew by his hair, white with a large strip of navy blue hair down the middle.

"May I say something?"

"Ask away. It is better to treat each other as equals."

"Do you not feel anything about using such underhanded tactics?"

The middle-aged man sighed a deep breath, as if he was locking down the preemptive emotions that wanted to answer in his place.

"I will do what I must to achieve my goal of victory. If you do not like it, you may do what you may please. My Command Seals are not strong enough to be able to keep you locked to a task if you choose to hate it. Is that not right, _King of Warriors_?"

Saber closed his eyes and started walking away, fading out to a spiritual form.

"I'll keep an eye out for any information. It's best if you ask the Overseer as to which class of Servant was summoned for us to be able to expect what type of fight we will get into."

"I appreciate the assistance."

Being left by himself, to the physical degree, he reached out for a cigarette and lit it up with a small rune. Inhaling the smoke, he blew it back out into the skies, looking up into the stars above. He wondered if the new Master was seeing the same scenery as he was, but there was no room for thoughts like that here.

He needed to be cold-hearted in order to claim his reward at the end of the Holy Grail War.

And that is what he intended to be.

/

**Extra Author's Notes**

This version of the chapter (where there are small, yet very important details were added) was uploaded due to some reviews that I needed to address, in which they brought to me some attention that wasn't being conveyed that well. Specifically, Kurogane having no particular stake in the war aside from simping.

But alas, the _simping_ is more narratively important than you might think. I'm trying to not reveal all my cards too early, but if people aren't vibing with the protagonist due to his glaring simping problem, I'll be forced to accelerate some of those narrative hints before I get severely trashed before I'm able to to bring out my Exodia win condition.


End file.
